Past Destiny
by Freedom is in the wind
Summary: When Bella decided to live with her Father in small town Forks, she thought it would be boring. She didn't count on vampires, werewolves, near death accidents, or the fact that her destiny seemed to be undeniably tied to Alice Cullen.
1. A New School

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

I'm losing my mind, and it's only proved by the fact that when I came to the realisation that my sanity was hanging by a thread, my first thought was;l 'what am I going to tell my mother.' Honestly, the thought of breaking the news to my Mum that I've sacrificed my life and moved in with dear old Dad so that she could have her happiness is scary enough. Renee just thinks I wanted a change of scenery – well she probably knows the real reason but is too elated by the increase in her time with Phil to really object to a move that hardly does me any harm, at least that's what we all thought before I came here. But what's even scarier then facing my Mum when she thinks I'm having a 'tragic hero' moment, is the possibility that this move may actually have highly negative consequences, such as; the loss of any sanity I retained after living with Renee for seventeen years.

"Bella lunch is ready!" A high pitched voice called from downstairs and I screamed bloody murder, toppling backwards off my bed with a thump.

Charlie's footsteps came pounding up the stairs, yelling, "Bella! Bella! What's wrong!" His voice echoing through the halls of the small house before he burst through my bedroom door at full gallop, a piece of pizza hanging from his mouth and his hands stretched outwards in fists, ready to attack the cause of my terror.

His eyes darted around the room, taking in the pile of boxes on the floor, the closed window and apparent lack of threat before settling on me, sprawled across one of the boxes, with my legs hanging off the bed I'd just fallen off.

"Oh I see," he said, laughing as he stepped forward to offer me a hand up.

No, I don't think you do, I thought to myself but aloud I replied "sorry Dad, still as clumsy as ever I suppose." I grinned sheepishly, hoping he'd take my excuse with a grain of salt.

He did. With a nervous chuckle and mutterings about not wanting too many hospital visits he turned around and ambled out of the room and back to the kitchen, which was empty, except for Charlie.

See you might have noticed my problem by now. I've started hearing voices, in particular a high pitched female voice. When I first arrived at the house I would routinely go careening down the stairs to check my Dad hadn't snuck some girl in while I wasn't looking. The first time it happened I jogged down the stairs to the kitchen and asked Dad who was calling me – now that got me some weird looks, from both Dad and Billy Black – my Dad's best friend – who were both sitting at the kitchen table sipping beer. So I elaborated, asked them where the women was who called me, stranger looks, in fact I think Billy's eyes might have popped out, a WOMAN in the SWAN household. So I figured I'd imagined that one; laughed along with everyone else and went back upstairs to my unpacking. But the women kept calling me, sometimes she'd call me for meals, or tell me the movie was on or tell me I needed to email Renee cause it'd been weeks since we'd talked – who was she kidding I'd only been here three days! So after three days of hearing voices, it wasn't much of a stretch to conclude that the quaint little township of Forks had sent me utterly stark raving mad. Add this to the fact that I started at a new school tomorrow, I think I qualified as the biggest freak around.

* * *

The next morning progressed the same as every other morning I'd been here, though an hour earlier. I ate my breakfast with Charlie, occasionally exchanging a word or two in passing such as "can you give me the milk?" - very meaningful. I was just putting my empty cereal bowl on the kitchen counter when Charlie cleared his throat and I turned my attention to him as he briskly folded his paper, lying it on the table next to his coffee before meeting my eyes.

"I know you said not to get you anything," he started and I could feel my face morphing into an awkward smile at just the mention of a gift, oh please let it be something small or I will have no idea what to say!

"But I figured you would need some way to get around by yourself. Kids your age like to be independent don't they?" He asked and I cringed, what had he been reading!

"So, I got you. Well, come and see." Charlie finished as he pushed the chair back and lead the way towards the front door, all the while I was praying he'd just gotten me some old bike from a garage sale, I don't think I could handle the awkwardness if he'd bought me a new one, what if I crashed it!

Charlie opened the door with a flourish and I stopped mid prayer that the bike wouldn't be pink either. There, on the drive way, on _our_ drive way. Was a huge lump covered by a dirty brown piece of canvas. That wasn't a bike.

I could only watch in amazement as Charlie unveiled his majestic surprise from under a moth eaten car cover. First I saw a pair of dulled head lights that looked to have been polished to try and make them look like they could actually produce light, and then came the body work – this baby was built like a house, square and solid, not sure if that's how I liked 'em but damn it was good to have wheels, even if they were a hideous red colour. And on the bright side, I could always start 'er up and plough myself up a field, cause I was quite sure this truck had been a tractor in another life. I was so shocked that Charlie had actually bought me a car that I could only stare in amazement at the gift, with the thought; this is so much better then a bike, running on replay through my head.

"I love it Dad!" I exclaimed, trying to sound super duper enthusiastic so Charlie would stop looking at me as if I was responsible for his final judgement. I could practically watch my father sag in relief at my admission and his face lit up like a Christmas tree as he attempted to lean roguishly against my truck. It felt kinda weird to lay claim to this vehicle – my truck, my truck, my truck. Ok, it's out of my system now.

"So can you drive stick?" Dad asked, still leaning on _my_ truck.

"Yeah," and I almost added 'Phil taught me' but thought better of it at the last second and cut myself off, smiling awkwardly for a few moments before scooping my backpack off the ground at my feet.

"Well I'd better get to school!" I say, grinning nervously and I imagined it came off slightly manically because my Dad chuckled nervously before tossing me the keys, which I fumbled, but didn't drop – I have my moments.

"Now you have a good day Kiddo," Dad said, stepping off to the side as I clambered into the driver's seat and inserted the keys into the ignition.

"Will do Pop," I replied, mock saluting as I backed slowly out of the drive, before changing up into first and accelerating away, thankfully I didn't stall it, now that would have been embarrassing.

The school was about a ten minute drive from my place, so about a fifteen minute walk – I wasn't going very fast. But even with my snail pace driving I arrived a whole hour before school, ok so I was sort of nervous, you can't blame a girl for that. And when I arrived in the parking lot there was no one else there, a fact I both appreciated and regretted.

Ahead of me was a single level building that, when compared to my old school, could probably have fit in our library. It was even painted the same colour, a dull grey. It amused me for a second to sit in my car and pretend I was going to a spy school where the buildings were designed to blend into the scenery. But realising that I was living in a town that would make a grey building blend in was rather depressing so I was soon hopping out of my car and standing on the curb. I didn't bother locking the truck – my Dad was head of police and I'm sure anyone who wanted to steal something could do better than my dump truck. I'm not sure how long I stood there, just staring at the building through the slight misty rain that was falling, it was long enough that my legs started to stiffen up and it was only the sound of a car doing past that broke my day dream about very dull schools with too much water. Thankfully it wasn't another student, I wanted to make a slightly better impression then the loser who stands on the side walks gawking like someone whose never seen bricks put together like that before. With a nervous glance around me I made my way down concrete path to the school, praying for some sort of directions to the office, it didn't take long to find some.

"Aha!" I exclaimed, coming across a glass door with a wooden sign nailed to the bricks to the right of it. 'Cffice' it read, and I assumed that some kind soul had taken great pleasure in scratching out the other side of the 'O', it certainly amused me and I entered the office with a genuine smile adorning my features.

As I opened the door, a bell jiggled above my head and I heard the sound of paper being dropped and a soft curse.

"I'll be with you in a second dear!" A voice called beyond a door behind the office desk.

"Take your time," I replied, closing the door behind me as I stepped into the middle of the small room. The office floor was decorated with what I assumed was once beige carpet; but it seemed to have undergone a recolouring and now resembled a patch work of light and dark browns. There was a patch of amazingly clean looking carpet which I thought must have been position of the lone arm chair before it was moved over to the corner to cover a particularly nasty stain. Like most offices, the walls were decorated with certificates and pictures of the school in various years. A large desk took up most of the room and it was tilted on an angle just to fit it in the room, behind the desk was a door that I assumed was used to store records and such. I was just craning my head to see if I could make out anyone in there when a woman in her late thirties emerged, carrying a handful of files and looking at me with keen interest.

"You must be Isabella" She said smartly, as she planted herself on the chair and dumped the files in her arms onto the already crowded desk.

"Uh, yeah, but I prefer Bella." I replied, pushing down the urge to ask her how she knew me so quickly, it sounded rude in my head so I don't think it would sound any better out loud. As I spoke however the secretary's blue eyes flickered over me attire, giving me a once over before returning her gaze to my face.

"Well then Bella, I suppose you're looking for your timetable huh?" The woman said braking into welcoming smile and I nodded my head eagerly.

"Yes please," I replied, trying to remember my manners.

"Well you just give me a second darl and I'll go fetch it for you," she said before disappearing into the back room. I fought the urge to gag as she called me 'darl' – urg, not even my mother did that. But I quickly forced my face back into a smile as I saw her remerging.

"Here you are, hope you have a good first day." She handed me the timetable, thankfully leaving off the awful nickname and I smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks so much," I said, turning towards the door and walking back out into the rain, which had turned from a light mist into a steady shower.

"Damn" I cursed, ducking my head and walking quickly towards the main building. But quite suddenly the rain stopped and I looked up to see a boy with a soft baby face and carefully spiked blonde haired holding his umbrella over me.

"You get used to carrying one of these when you live in a town that's trying its best prove the sun a myth." He said cheekily and if he'd stopped there I would have been impressed, but he continued with "and what is an angel like you doing out in this thunder storm." Complete with eye brow wiggle.

"This is hardly a thunder storm," I remarked, still not sure he'd actually said that.

"Oh but darling you are definitely an angel," he shot me a suave smile he probably practiced in the mirror this morning and offered his arm to me.

"It's ok, I've got it," I say, taking his umbrella and leaving him standing in the rain, his arm still extended.

"Hey! Wait up Isabella!" 'Mr Smooth' called as I made it to the veranda outside the front doors and put his umbrella with the others sitting drying outside the door.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, I may have been reserved with the secretary, but I had no such hesitation with another student.

At this, the guy seemed to finally get control of his hormones long enough to be embarrassed. "Well, people have been talking about you for weeks now; you know how it is in a small town."

I had to squash the urge to ram my head into a wall, there was no way I wanted to be the centre of any sort of attention and what exactly could people have been saying about me for weeks! What had Dad told them....

"Well just so you know, I prefer Bella" I replied and the guy grinned happily.

"Well then Bella, let's start this over, I'm Mike, Mike Newton." And I _knew_ he'd practiced that one.

I laughed nervously, "see you later then, Mike Newton." I turned to go through the doors when Mike called after me.

"Later Angel!" He yelled and I winced, blood rushing to my face as I snuck a look at the other people in the corridor. My eyes caught the gaze of a girl with light brown hair and similar coloured eyes. Her mouth was lifted in a knowing smile and she rolled her eyes at a person behind me, I assumed she was trying to tell me that he was like this with everyone and no one would find it odd. I smiled thankfully at her, looking cautiously over my shoulder at Mike, who had found himself a friend to talk to, before I moved towards her.

"Hey there," the girl said as I approached and I smiled in reply. "How's it going so far?" She asked me as I reached her and I copied her earlier move, rolling my eyes mockingly and jabbing my thumb over my shoulder.

"Resident Casanova, that one." She said, and confirmed my suspicions that he flirted like that with everyone.

"You have experience with this?" I asked, and she giggled.

"About six years worth, that's about when Mike decided girls didn't have cooties."

"Not cooties, Angela, that's just when they started getting interesting to look at." Mike said, as he came from behind us and threw an arm around my shoulders.

"Ew!" I ducked out from under him and side stepped so I was just behind Angela. "He didn't really say that did he?" I asked.

"Sadly, he did." Angela admitted, shaking her head with a disappointed look on her face, before she turned around and headed off the down the corridor, still shaking her head, though I could tell it was more in exasperation then annoyance.

"She digs me," Mike said cockily and I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or repulsed by his over confidence so I decided to flee after Angela, rather than sticking around to decipher the puzzle that was Mike Newton.

"So what class do you have first?" I asked, catching up to the brown haired girl as she looked over her time table.

"Chemistry, you?" She asked, turning her eyes to me.

"Damn, I've got Physics," I muttered, as I ran my hand through my waist length hair and Angela peered over at the time table in my hand.

"Well I can take you if you want?" She offered, and I nodded my gratitude.

It didn't take us long to get to the physics class room, though I think my first estimation of this school had been slightly under par, it was definitely bigger then our library. I couldn't even remember which turns Angela had taken to get here! Though I was very thankful that she'd volunteered to make sure I got to all my classes until I knew my way around.

I walked into the classroom with fifteen minutes before school was due to start and took a seat in one of the middle rows, slightly off to the side – don't want to appear too enthusiastic or the teacher might call on me, and too far back and they'll think I'm a slacker. No, the middle of the range suited me just fine. Over the next quarter of an hour the class gradually filed in, there were about seven people in the class; some came in and smiled at me, others shot me curious looks but the real surprise when a tall, lean blonde entered the room. I thought I'd seen some really gorgeous people, flawlessly tanned skin, natural blonde hair, stunning blue eyes, but anyone I'd ever thought was beautiful was thrown out the window when my eyes caught a glimpse of this perfection. His skin wasn't tanned, in fact it was paler than me but it seemed to have an ethereal glow about it and I swear the guy had never had a breakout in his life. His hair was a natural golden blonde and windswept and totally unaffected by the rain outside, for a second I thought that water wouldn't dare touch this guys hair in fear of ruining perfection. He was tall, lean and muscled like you wouldn't believe and I would have thought him a God, except God's don't glare like that.

I expected him to show only a small sign of recognition like everyone else had; or just ignore me like every other totally beautiful and unobtainable person did when they saw me. I didn't expect him to glare me down as he walked to his seat at the back of the classroom, and even when he sat down I could feel his stare on the back of my neck making the hairs stand on end. He kept it up until the teacher came two minutes later, only stopping when his name was called and I assumed this was because he looked up at the teacher because as soon as it was past his name I could feel his stare return.

The teacher was the typical science teacher, a balding 40 something year old man with an apparent obsession with explosions; shortly into the lesson he'd demonstrated; static electricity, what happens in a short circuit and just for fun, how to light a Bunsen burner and burn magnesium. He went through the usual welcome process when he walked in the door but thankfully didn't make me stand up and introduce myself, I don't think I could have done it without stuttering. About half way through the Bunsen burner demonstration I glanced back to see if the pissed off blonde was still glaring at me or if my imagination had taken over at this point. He was; his eyes were black, reflecting the orange flame from the burner and fixed solely on me. I sunk lower in my seat and turned my attention back to the front, wondering exactly which deity I'd offended for them to send this lesser god to torment me.

When the bell finally rang I already had my books stuffed in my bag, in fact they'd been there for the past ten minutes. I leapt up from my seat and almost tripped over a desk in my haste to get to the door, I was two steps from the door when it opened to reveal another god. This time with windswept bronze hair and honey coloured eyes, but they widened as they settled on me and darkened to just a few shades lighter than the other god's black. And his shocked expression transformed into a snarl followed closely by a glare to rival scary at the back.

Oh. My. Gosh. HELP!

I know that my fear showed clearly on my face as I ducked my head and dodged around the man who appeared to have become a statue in the door way, I didn't even look where I was going and ran head long into someone after taking just three steps down the hall.

"Oof," they groaned as we bounced off each other and fell to the floor.

"Woah, Bella why the rush?" Angela asked, looking at me from where she was sprawled on the floor.

"Angela I'm so sorry," I said, scrambling to get up and grabbing the books we'd dropped as Angela picked herself up.

"It's ok Bella," she reassured me, taking her books from the pile in my arms. "It happens to all of us."

I laughed nervously, "thanks."

"No problem," she replied, "but why exactly did you look like you'd just seen the devil himself?"

"Cause I think I just had physics with him," I whispered, glancing around to make sure said guy wasn't listening in – you know what they say, speak of the devil and the devil shall appear.

"And then his right hand man showed up at the door," I continued, still in a hushed tone.

"You've lost me," Angela said, looking at me like I was some sort loony escaped from the asylum, I certainly felt like one.

"Well, I was in physics except this guy kept staring at me throughout the whole class. He walked in the door and totally loathed me. I didn't even do anything other than look at him and he glared at me like he was planning my murder!"

"Well do you know his name?" Angela asked and I nodded.

"Jasper Hale."

"Ah," Angela made a sound of acknowledgment but said no more, she looked to be pondering her next words.

"Well that sort of explains the glaring," she said at last and I for the life of me I couldn't figure out what that was supposed to mean and told her so.

She laughed, "Well, the Cullens aren't exactly known for being sociable."

"But his last name was Hale" I pointed out, very confused.

"Oh, I forgot you don't know" Angela said, looking pensive for a second before launching into her tale.

"There are five Cullen kids; Rosaline, Emmett, Edward, Jasper and Alice. They're all adopted by Dr Cullen and his wife. Rosaline and Jasper are related, I think they're cousins or something, and their last name is Hale. But I don't think any of the other three are related. Jasper, which you already know is in our year, along with Alice and I think Edward - you can never tell with those guys. And Emmett and Rosaline are in the year above. I've never actually heard of any of them taking to anyone besides themselves, they came two years ago and a couple of people tried to welcome them, but you get the vibe pretty quickly that they don't like talking to anyone but themselves. They even date each other!"

"Seriously?" I asked as Angela stopped us outside a door, the hall ways rapidly emptying out.

"Yeah, Rosaline is with Emmett and Jasper 's with Alice. And it appears that Edward is single, though he definitely does not date any of us that are less than perfect." Angela smiled at the end of her statement to show she was just kidding about the perfection bit. I laughed, though some part of me wondered if she was kidding.

"I'd better get going," Angela said, looking around at the empty hall way. "Will I see you at lunch?"

"Yeah," I smiled hesitantly at my newest friend "thanks Angela."

"It was my pleasure, see you after class Bella" and then she was gone, and I was moving into the classroom, pleading with whoever was listening that there weren't any Cullens in this class.


	2. A Strange Meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

"So did you make it through Lit?" Angela asked me in the lunch line and I rolled my eyes at her, grabbing an apple.

"Yes. No Cullen glares to content with makes focusing a lot easier."

"I'm glad," Angela said happily, "oh look, there's Jess."

"Huh?" I turned around in search of the girl Angela was waving at and caught sight of curly dark hair and the girl beneath it cutting the cue to catch up to Angela and I.

"Hey Ang, hey new girl" Jess said, grabbing some fruit from the line, while the people behind us complained.

"Hey" I replied with a nod before I followed Angela to a table, Jess stayed behind to grab some more food before she was pushed out of the line.

"She's ok once you get to know her," Angela assured me as we reached the table and I was mildly horrified to find I'd be sharing this lunch break with my good friend – Mike Newton, he on the other hand seemed overjoyed.

"Heya there Bella" He said making room for me beside him while Angela got a spot beside another boy with slicked back black hair.

"Hey Mike," I said, trying to sound somewhat happy about seeing him but I think I failed because the boy next to Angela guffawed and Angela shot me a sympathetic smile, though there was definitely a touch of amusement tossed in there as well.

The table had six people sitting at it, including me. There was Angela and Mike, of course, as well as the black haired boy who'd engaged Angela in conversation. The girl to the right of Angela had silvery blonde hair and appeared to be desperately trying to talk to the brown haired guy across from her but he seemed to be ignoring her and listening in on Angela's conversation.

"You guys got room for one more?" A voice behind me asked and I turned my head to see Jessica standing behind me.

"Oh, thanks Bella," she said, not giving me any time to respond before she pushed me over towards the end of the bench and sandwiched herself between Mike and I.

"Pleasures all mine," I said amused, despite my precarious position on the edge of the chair, at the way Mike's eyes suddenly glaze over as Jessica started talking.

The lunch was fairly uneventfully and over the next ten minutes the cafeteria doors open and close multiple times to admit the rest of the student body. And just as I finish gnawing on my apple Jessica made a comment not directed at Mike.

"Wow Bella, what did you do to piss off the Cullens?"

Unthinkingly my eyes flicked around the cafeteria and sure enough, on the other side were five gorgeous faces, three of which are trained on me their eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Rosalie, Jasper and Edward are all glaring at you," the black haired boy said and I could see Angela nodding in my peripheral, but I couldn't seem to tear my gaze away from those creatures.

"I see what you mean about them hating you," Angela said and the trance is broken as the memory of a terrifying physics lesson came rushing back to me.

"Hahaha," I laughed, "well they don't all hate me, two of them aren't glaring."

"Oh Don't worry," Jessica said flippantly "they'll be ignoring you in a week" and I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or offended, so I settled for indifferent and shrugged my shoulders, going back to my apple.

"Bella, I really should take you shopping." The voice was back! My eyes flew up; even though I knew there was no one there but still I gazed around the room, hoping that this time I would find the source of the voice. But when my eyes went to flick over the Cullen table they were captured by the gaze of bronze haired boy. His eyes, like mine, were wide with surprise and suddenly Jasper's eyes came up as well. Both boys ogled at me from across the hall and I quickly adverted my eyes but it seemed that the voice felt particularly chatty today and I could hear that high pitched soprano echoing around in my head, telling me exactly why I should go shopping with it. I felt I'd gotten pretty good at ignoring my imaginary friend and soon enough the voice faded but neither Edward nor Jasper's stares did. Even as they left the cafeteria their stares continued to drill through my head and I only looked up from my tray when I was sure they were gone.

"That was really weird," Angela said once the Cullens had vacated the cafeteria.

"Maybe they were curious about the new kid as well," Jessica suggested, though she didn't look convinced.

* * *

The rest of the day went in a bit of blur, I think I had a class with Emmett in it, but he didn't appear to know about the Cullens united hatred of Bella Swan and simply got on with his work, it was almost boring. But by the end of the day I was thoroughly stressed out and ready to just go home and crash. I packed my books up slowly, waiting until the last person had left the classroom before I let out a sigh of relief, savoring the crowd free moment where I could just relax. I'd told Angela that I could find my own way home and so I wasn't worried about anyone waiting in the corridor for me. Sometimes it was nice to be by yourself and it was sure a lot less work to get to my locker.

The parking lot was well and truly empty when I made it out there and I was free to examine the school in a new light, without the misty rain. It didn't look like much, and I doubt it ever would, unless they got some serious funding or a permitted the art class to paint a mural to liven the place up. But it was doable, definitely doable - through probably easier if I could get the Cullens to just stop glaring at me I thought, tossing my bag onto the floor on the car and slipping my keys into the ignition. My truck roared to life, and with only a slight rev of the engine – I wasn't used to driving stick – I maneuvered my way out of the car park.

* * *

My first few days in Forks had been filled mostly with unpacking and getting used to the new town, but from the couple of meals Charlie had served up – with the exception of the fish fry on Saturday night – I had an inkling that he didn't cook much. But I hadn't actually got up the courage to look in the fridge to see what amount of take-out I was talking about here. Turns out, judging by the mouldy cheese and two week old milk – which were the entire contents of the fridge, I wasn't just talking three or four times a week. If he hadn't cooked the fish the other night I would have doubted Charlie even knew he owned a stove, much less an oven. In all honesty I wanted to come home from school, crash on the couch, watch some trash on TV, then whip up something easy like meatballs for dinner. Well, I crashed on the couch and turned on the TV, but the only thing on was sport, which held absolutely no interest to me at all. So I figured I could always search the internet, but that hadn't been hooked up yet. And as a last ditch resort I thought I could cook something fancy for dinner, but that plan was soon foiled as well by the lack of edible food in the entire house. Plans of a relaxing afternoon had to be put on hold until tomorrow, in favor of a grocery shop.

It didn't take me long to find the local store, the town only had one, and with my purse a hundred or so dollars lighter, alright I was almost totally cleaned out, I existed the store an hour or so later, laden down with a trolley full of; fresh fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates. I dumped the groceries into the back seat of my truck and headed over to the butcher to grab some meat, but it wasn't the special on lamb shanks that caught my attention – though those were a great price – but the sign in the window advertising; 'Help wanted'.

The bell above the butcher shop door jiggled as I opened it and I only had to wait a few moments for a slightly overweight man to stride into the area behind the counter from in the cold room.

"Hello" He said his voice a rich tenor with a slight accent I couldn't quite place, though it sounded European. "How can I help you?"

"Well firstly I'd like to buy half a dozen lamb shanks" I said, and he turned to grab the required meat, weighing it, before ringing me up. "And secondly I was wondering if the job is still open?"

The man looked up from where he was getting my change out of the register and his eyes seemed to take me in for the first time. His gaze swept down from my slightly bedraggled brown hair, put up in a hasty pony tail, to my face, completely free of makeup and my loosely fitted clothes and worn sneakers. He was still examining me as he handed over my purchase and I was just about to tell him not to worry about it when he spoke.

"What sort of hours could you work?" He asked and started at his question before I pulled it together.

"Well, school finishes at 3, so I could do 2 hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and I'm happy to work a full day Saturday."

"All Saturday?" He asked, and I nodded eagerly.

"That's quite a commitment for a kid," he remarked and I smiled openly.

"I really need the money" I confessed and he nodded knowingly. "Alright kid, you're hired, be here at 3:15 tomorrow."

"I will, thank you so much" I said profusely and rushed out of the store before he could reconsider.

* * *

"You know you didn't need to do the shopping Bella," Charlie muttered as he sat down to the meal I had prepared.

"Well you could always pay me back," I hinted and Charlie chucked, taking out and wallet and handing me two hundreds and when I released what he'd given me I tried to give half back.

"Charlie it only cost a hundred," I insisted but my father just shook his head and tucked into his lamb.

"The extra hundred is for the delivery fee" He said and I smiled.

"Well if you insist" I replied, grinning from ear to ear as I pocketed the money and dug into my own dinner.

"So how was the first day?" Charlie asked after a couple of minutes of silence and I shrugged, swallowed, and then replied;

"It was pretty good. The kids were pretty welcoming, I hung out with Angela mostly, through the classes are a bit behind where we were in Phoenix, so I don't have to pay much attention."

"Any boys you've got your eye on?" Charlie asked and I almost choked on a mouthful of potato.

"Dad!" I whined, "It's only been one day!" In my mind I was trying to picture bringing Mike Newton home to meet my father and telling him not to worry too much about the gun.

Charlie chuckled, "you can never be too cautious." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"What exactly would you do if I said yes?" I asked out of curiosity and watched Dad choke on his own mouthful of potatoes. Once I was sure I wasn't going to have to perform the Heinemann manoeuvre I stared expectantly at my father.

"Well," he started "I guess I would have had to drop you off in the cruiser tomorrow, just to let them know exactly who they're messing with. Maybe hand out a couple of parking tickets." I could feel my face flushing redder the more he said, until I'm sure I resembled a tomato. There couldn't be anything more embarrassing then my Dad showing up at school and 'demonstrating his authority'. Oh gosh, their goes any sort of reputation I might have ever had – I would forever be known as Daddy's little girl with a capital 'D'.

If Charlie noticed my embarrassment he didn't acknowledge it and instead went straight back to his dinner, which made me dread that he was planning out exactly how to make the best 'manly' impression on the innocent boys of Folks High, quick think of a distraction Swan!

"Oh Dad, I got a job today," I blurted out and Charlie looked up, interested, from his meal.

"Really?" He asked and I patted myself on the back for a distraction well done.

"Yeah, down at the butcher." I replied and Charlie looked uncertain for a moment.

"Are you sure you should be handling knives Bella, I know you're not the steadiest person on your feet"

"Dad!" I whined, appalled, "I cooked this didn't I?" And he had the grace to look ashamed.

"Of course you did," he said, a hint of red coming into his own cheeks "and it really is very nice."

"Thank you," I replied and the rest of the meal continued in relative silence except for the occasional question and the clicking of cutlery.

As soon as I'd put my plate on the sink for Dad to wash up I raced upstairs to my bedroom and threw myself onto my bed. The comforter moulded around my body and I breathed a sigh of relief and comfort. I just lay there like this for a while, savoring the warmth of my bed and the peace of solitude. Pretty soon though I grew bored of looking at the ceiling and rolled over the check the time on my clock, lifting my head to see the flashing red numbers; 7:30.

"Urgh!" I groaned, throwing my head back onto my pillow and staring at the ceiling.

"Now would be a really good time to start hearing voices so I don't have to actually get on with my homework" I said to no one in particular and I wasn't surprised when my proclamation was greeted with silence.

"Fine," I muttered, turning over to bury my head in my pillow, "homework it is."

It took me another ten minutes to actually make it to my desk to start my homework and I ended up reading a page of _Withering Heights_ for every physics problem I got done - self motivation wasn't a forte of mine. At 10:15 I considered it a reasonable time to turn in, plus I was running out of things to do and quickly showered and got ready for bed.

* * *

The clock ticked over to 11:19 and I still hadn't managed to go to sleep, I tossed and turned under my comforter before throwing it off and lying shivering under just a thin sheet. In my head I replayed the scene in the cafeteria, trying to imagine every feature of the perfect Cullens; in my mind's eye I could conjure up the huge hulking Emmett with curly dark hair and enormous muscles, his girl friend Rosaline was a bit fuzzier, I remember long blonde curls and a vague tallness. Edward and Jasper were the clearest, their faces twisted in my mind's eye into scowls and snarls. But for the life of me I couldn't remember the name of the other one, I could see flashes of spiky black hair, but I hadn't even seen the girl's face so it didn't really surprise me that I couldn't remember her name, I normally remembered images much clearer than words.

"I'm not going to be able to get to sleep until I remember that name," I muttered, bending down to grab the covers and pull them back up to my chin.

A bright laughter filled in my ears, ah, so my imaginary friend had decided to show herself again.

"Do you know her name?" I asked the empty room but the only answer I got was the echoing laughter ringing in my ears.

"Guess not," I muttered, turning over to look back at the clock; 11:24. Damn it!

* * *

"Hey Bella you alright?" Mike asked as I stood next to him in gym. "You look paler than usual, and that's a pretty impressive feat."

"Thanks Mike," I muttered sarcastically, trying to communicate with the coach that putting my on a basket ball court was not a good idea, in fact, it was a momentously bad idea!

"On my whistle!" Coach yelled, pointedly ignoring me and turning his head to the players in the middle.

The whistle sounded loud and clear and coach tossed the ball into the air, the two boys jumping up to knock it towards their own team. And the game was on. People were running everywhere, dodging around each other, flailing arms spread wide. However I didn't think it was a good idea for me to attempt something that required enough co-ordination as running, especially this tired, so I contented myself with throwing my arms out every time someone of the opposite team near me – the tactic seemed to work, until someone on my own team went to run past just as I flung my arms out.

"What did you do that for?!" He asked, clutching his noise and making pained noises. I blushed scarlet.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to," I stuttered and he just rolled his eyes at me before joining back into the game, though with a little less enthusiasm then before. When it finally ended I tried to apologize to him again but he insisted it was find and I figured, overall, it was a pretty good sports lesson, no major injuries to myself or anyone else; maybe I wasn't as bad at this sports thing as I thought. I changed my mind when I stacked it going into the locker room.

Luckily for me sport was the last lesson of the day for Tuesday and the day was pretty much the same as Monday, but without physics so I didn't have to put up with any death glares and even during lunch the Cullens re-valuated their immediate hatred of me and toned it down to just intense dislike; only Edward was glaring at me now.

But I was really looking forward to the end of the day so I could do my shift at my new job. Sure, I'd worked at WalMart in Phoenix, hasn't everyone, but that was a big company - most of the time I don't think my boss even bothered learning my name, we had name tags after all. But here in a small town business was different and I really wanted to make a good first impression. When the last bell finally rang I was the first one out into the parking lot and I barely even looked around at the other cars parked there, they were all mostly the same anyway, but what caught my eye was the silver Volvo parked perfectly parallel to the lines and gleaming, even with the cloud cover. I wasn't a car lover by any stretch of the imagination, but I definitely knew a good vehicle when I saw one, and that, that was it. I had to shake the car fantasies out of my head as I drove out of the car park, the butterflies in my stomach not leaving any room for wondering exactly how fast that thing could go.

I got to the butcher in record time, with seven minutes before my shift started but I thought I'd better turn up early to make a good impression. When I walked into the shop the butcher was surviving a costumer and so I stood a little away from the door and just watched the exchange, it seemed easy enough. Even before the bell had stopped jiggling above the door the butcher had turned his eyes to me and once again sized me up, before he nodded his head, as if happy with his decision to hire me and gestured for me to go come around to the other side of the counter. He disappeared into the cold room for a few minutes, before re-immerging with an apron.

"Well then kid, since you'll be working for me I reckon I should know your name." He said, handing me the apron and I grinned nervously. "It's Bella," I replied and he nodded, "Chief Swan's daughter?" He asked and I confirmed his question with a nod.

"Everyone around these parts seem to know my whole life story" I said and the butcher laughed heartily.

"Indeed," He replied, "in a town this small, news does tend to spread fast. But I was terrible rude not to introduce myself earlier, the names Francis."

Over the next hour Francis showed the cool room out the back where the meat was stored and how to work the cash register and got me to serve any customers that came in. And after not long at all the two hours were up and the store was due for closing, I helped Francis pack the meat away and he told me about his wife and two young kids, with a third one on the way. It was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon and soon enough I was wishing Francis good bye and hoping into my truck to go home. Life was good.

I was surprised when I woke up on Wednesday morning to find the weather had changed from the dull rain we had been having; though I wasn't sure if the change was for the better. The grass which had once been covered in a thin layer of water was replaced with snow, not the kind of snow that you celebrate over because you don't have to go to school, but the thin, sloppy wet kind, that's just thick enough to hide a layer of ice to send you sprawling to the ground. When I got up Charlie was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping his coffee from a mug and reading the paper.

"Morning Dad," I said, moving to the toaster to make myself some breakfast and pouring some hot water from the kettle for hot chocolate.

"Morning Bells," he replied, looking up from his paper to observe me, before speaking again "you better be careful on the ice out there today."

"Driving is gonna be a nightmare," I muttered, stirring the chocolate power into my hot water and milk.

"Well I've put some snow chains on your truck, so you shouldn't have too much trouble as long as you keep it slow." He said, continuing to watch me, waiting for my reaction.

"I, thank you" I stuttered, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by the emotions my father was drawing from me. I wasn't used to someone worrying enough about my well being to get up hours earlier than normal just to do something so small as to apply chains to my tyres.

"S'ok," Charlie said gruffly, looking lost at the display of emotions, but I could see the gleam of triumph in his eyes at my praise.

My toast popped up just as the room started to fall into an awkward silence and I was thankful for the distraction of food, all these emotions were getting a bit too overwhelming for me.

Thankfully Charlie left a few minutes later, saying he needed to get to the station to check what roads were worst off and see if there was anything he could do to make them safer. I finished my breakfast soon after that and I locked up the house before heading off to school. The parking lot was mostly full when I arrived and this was the first time I'd have a chance to check out the other kids' rides, and I was interested to find out who owned the Volvo.

Leaning up against my truck I surveyed the parking lot, most of the cars were of the same standard as mine, the key difference being most of them had better paint jobs.

There! The Volvo. The shiny silver car pulled in a couple of spots down from me and I waited in anticipation for the owner to immerge.

The first person to get out of the car was short; I would go as far as to call her petite. Her black hair was artfully spiked up to look like she'd just rolled out of bed, but surely this sort of perfection didn't just get straight out of bed to look like that. She wore dark denim designer jeans with a long sleeved white blouse and a black velvet vest completed the look. I didn't see anyone else get out of the car I was too preoccupied wondering how I'd missed this beauty when I'd first looked over at the Cullens - I didn't need to look at the others to know this perfect creature was one of them. And then our eyes connected and I released I'd been seeing the world in black and white my whole life. The colour that seemed to radiate from this one girl was almost more than my less than perfect eyes could handle. And, for some reason that I couldn't fathom, she was staring at me too. My tongue poked out to wet my lips and I could see her eyes drop to watch it, I don't even know how I could see her eyes from this distance, but the connection between us felt so strong I felt I would know every time this angel blinked.

Then a sudden screech filled the air getting louder by the second and I ripped my eyes away from the girl - whose name I still couldn't remember - and I saw a van careering towards me! The wheels were locked, and skidding wildly on the ice and the connection from before still hung in the air making it so I could see every sharp fragments of ice as they ripped the grip from the tyres. I could see the sweat running down Tyler's face, his eyes full of panic and fear as he violently wrenched the steering wheel.

The truck seemed to approach me at the slowest speed possible, but my body wouldn't move at the speed I was viewing everything at, and seconds before the collision a name sprang into my mind, as if forced there by fate itself.

"Alice," I whispered, the name rolling off my lips and for some reason this was the most important thing I could have been doing. Figures, I would die crazy and then as I shut my eyes for the impact. A solid mass collided with me but to my confusion it didn't feel like a van, and I found myself slammed against the side of my truck with an ice cold body pressed up against me and a split second later an enormous crash sounded through the parking lot and I felt my body jerk backward into my truck again, my hip was jammed into the metal of my fender, my side ached from where I'd hit the lip of my tray and remained pressed up against it. I could barely feel my legs, only a numb cold and pins from where they were pressed against the chains my Dad had applied for carefully just a few hours earlier. I was wedged against my truck at an awkward angle, almost side on but still partially facing the front and jammed in next to me was Alice Cullen, one arm pinning me back against my truck, the other outstretched towards Tyler's van, which had a huge dint in the bonnet the shape of a small, human hand.

I could only stare horrified at the tiny creature pressed between me and the van and when she turned to face me I could see that same horror mirrored on her face. And then her eyes settled on mine and I could see tears welling in her golden eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked me, her voice a high pitched soprano, the exact same voice I had been imagining for weeks.

"You're the voice in my head!" I exclaimed in a whisper and I watched the girl's eyebrows draw together in confusion.

"I don't think I understand," she murmured back and I continued to gape, it was so strange to actually someone talking when I heard that voice, that I'd thought was just a part of my elaborate imagination.

"I just watched you appear across a car park in less than a second and stop a moving van and you're confused?" I muttered and Alice's face morphed back into its former horror in an instant.

"Please Bella, don't say anything," she begged "I'll explain it to after we're out of this mess, but please, don't tell anyone anything." Her expression was so pleading that I don't think I could have disagreed if I wanted to.

"I won't," I whispered back as suddenly the van was wrenched away from us and both Alice and I fell to the ground. My last thought before falling unconscious was to wonder if the lack of feeling in my legs was a problem and then everything went black.


	3. The aftermath Alice's POV

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

Alice's POV:

She had me the moment she uttered my name – before that she'd been an intriguing, sweet smelling, human. A temptation – but I was surrounded by those constantly so I didn't feel the need to take much notice of another one. Both Jasper and Edward had complained of her intoxicating smell, Edward going so far as to call her the 'demon sent to ruin him'. I felt slightly offended on her behalf, Edward could be so irrational at times, for goodness sake it wasn't like she set out to smell good. But that was the last I thought of her, but as we pulled into the car park on Wednesday I could feel her stare before we even got out of the car, her eyes drilling holes through my head even as Edward pulled into one of the last spare spaces, just a few metres down from her. Maybe I'll get to see what the boys were complaining about, I thought just before I opened the door, scanning the future for anything that might cause complications, but all I saw was Bella deciding to stare at me, nothing unusual.

I forced myself to open the door at an agonising slow human pace and stepped out as I looked up through my long lashes at her, her jeans were baggy and unflattering and her shirt looked to have gone through the wash too many times and had faded significantly – though it probably didn't look too bad through human eyes. I couldn't see much of her body, it was too hidden by her over sized clothes. I straightened up and finished my inspection of her, my eyes finally rising up to meet hers and I expected a blush to colour her cheeks at my acknowledgement of her staring but instead I found the breath knocked out of my lungs when our eyes connected. It was almost like the movies when the world faded out around us, except we seemed to be in reverse, when I looked at her everything came into sharper clarity then even I was used to. The pounding of blood around me seemed to become thunderous, the heart beat of hundreds around me became deafening but hers was the loudest, so loud in fact that I could feel it sending vibrations through my own body – I could literally feel her heart beating – like it had become a part of me. It was her that broke the connection between us as she looked away and I found myself with a serious problem as the sudden sensitivity didn't fade, in fact it seemed to grow worse now that I wasn't concentrating on her and I could hear and smell the blood thundering through the veins of every human in a hundred metre radius, as if they had their necks pressed right up to my face. Ducking my head to the hide the rapid dilating of my pupils I stopped taking in air to try and eliminate the scent but I knew my siblings had sensed my hunger the instant venom started to pool in my mouth. Futures where I ditched school or stayed flashed before my eyes and I had just decided that skipping was defiantly a good idea when _she_ spoke again.

"Alice," she whispered suddenly, obviously not planning to say that because I hadn't had a vision about it. But as it was said I was immediately brought out of my struggle with my blood lust. I'd always been rather fond of my name, people told me it suited me perfectly, but I'd never heard anyone utter it with such conviction before. Confidence wasn't something I normally associated with someone's name – happiness, anger or sadness were the normal emotions evoked at the mention of another person. But when my name slipped from between her lips it was uttered with confidence and certainty, like nothing else this girl did. I'd seen her shuffling nervously around the school; her shoulders hunched, eyes to the floor and clutching her books close to her chest – her posture screamed under-confidence. And the sudden change in her demeanour sent shivers down my spine and I couldn't do anything but look up at her. Several thoughts flying through my head the second I did; firstly, I absolutely loved the way my name sounded when it came from her lips, secondly she was too far away from me and I desperately wanted her beside me and finally the only person who had every made me heart beat was going to have her own stopped in a matter of seconds by an out of control van.

I didn't think about what I did next, I just moved, flying across the car park with as much speed as I could muster and throwing myself in front of her, simultaneously pushing her back against her truck to put as much distance as I could between her and the danger. The truck was approaching at a frightening speed so I only just had time to brace myself and throw my hand out to take the impact.

Even as I concentrated on stopping the truck, a part of me was still tuned into her and in some recess of my mind I registered that she didn't even gasp in surprise when she hit the truck, like she had already prepared herself for death and was just waiting for it to hit her – the thought disturbed me. And that same portion of my brain that seemed to be unexplainably aware of her knew exactly where to place my body so she wouldn't be sandwiched unnecessarily against her truck but I was still surprised when she didn't even make a noise of pain as we were smashed roughly together, in fact her eyes didn't reflect any pain at all, only horror. And then I realised exactly what I'd done – humans did not sprint metres in nanoseconds and certainly didn't stop oncoming cars. So I did the only thing I could think of and the only thing that seemed to be important at the moment, I would think of the consequences later. I asked her if she was ok - stupid really, I would have known if she was hurt, but it had seemed logical at the time.

I was expecting shocked gasping or even to have the question returned incredulously and when the shocked expression on her face appeared I thought I'd finally got something right when it came to this girl.

"You're the voice in my head!" She exclaimed and I was totally floored and fully aware that the confusion and astonishment were displayed on my face for her to see. I was her what? Visions flashed through my head; Bella was trying to decide between; taking it back and blushing, saying nothing or trying to explain that she'd been imagining my voice since she'd moved here. The last scenario made my eyes widen slightly, did that explain our connection? I desperately wanted to get out of here to think, preferably taking Bella with me and asking her what exactly she meant by that statement, but that definitely wasn't in the cards.

And then my abilities were brought up again and I was begging her not to tell anyone, promising to explain everything to her even though I knew I'd be breaking that promise before the words were even out of my mouth. But when she whispered that she would keep my secret I regretted that I would have to break that promise, I wanted her to know what she was lying for, I wanted her to know about me and my family - or just me.

* * *

"Alice" A voice called through the trees and I pointedly ignored my brother, preferring to bask in the possibilities of Bella's future that had been assaulting me since I'd we'd been freed from the wreckage. Pressed up against the girl the visions had been kept at bay as my mind was more than occupied with thoughts of her and hadn't wanted to search out the future, but as soon as we'd separated my visions had started clambering for attention, showing me flashes of Bella and I curled up together on her couch watching a movie, of me dragging her around the shops and most frequently Bella standing beside me as a vampire.

"Alice!" Edward yelled more forcefully and I let out my breath slip out in a huff.

"What!" I yelled back, dragging myself away from my visions to answer him but stubbornly not moving from the tree I had stationed myself in minutes after Carlisle had gotten me released from the hospital.

"I know you're up there," Edward muttered from where he had appeared at the bottom on my tree and I looked over the side of my branch to stick my tongue out at him.

"Obviously," I replied sarcastically, "now what do you what?"

"No need to be snarky," he teased, inviting himself up and taking a seat on a branch below mine.

"Who said you could come up?" I asked, still glaring down at him and debating on whether or not to throw something at him.

"I wouldn't," he warned and I just rolled my eyes, turning my attention back to scanning the future for Bella.

"So, you seen anything yet?" Edward asked after a couple of minutes and I held back my growl of irritation as my concentration was broken.

"I might if you didn't keep interrupting" I said huffily, going back to searching but instead of seeing Bella a vision Edward as he debated something within himself assaulted him. Resigned to the fact that I was going to have to view this in its entirety I tried to relax back into my tree. Sometimes it was a bad thing I was so in tune with my family as every insignificant decision was forcibly projected through my head.

_"Alice, I have something to tell you" Edward said and I rolled my eyes. _

_"Yes?" My reply was terse. _

_"I didn't think it was anything significant at the time and I dismissed it as a coincidence but there have been brief moments, but only briefly, where I couldn't hear Bella's thoughts."_

"WHAT!" I yelled, hooking my legs around the tree branch and flipping over so I was hanging upside down to look at my brother.

"You can't hear her?" I asked incredulously and Edward's face turned from amused to annoyed.

"No," he said tersely, "I can hear her most of the time. It's just occasionally she seems to disappear from my radar."

"So basically you can't hear her," I replied, just to be annoying and Edward growled – brothers are so easy.

"You look like an idiot" he said, as if he thought this was some sort of comeback, and I shrugged as best I could while upside down before swinging myself back onto my branch.

"Why are you still here anyway?" I asked after a ten minutes of silence and Edward still hadn't left me in peace.

"Can't I keep my favourite sister company?" He asked innocently and I rolled my eyes in irritation.

"What? Doesn't anyone else want you?" I asked and he laughed.

"Sticks and stones sister dearest"

Again silence descended between us but I broke it after only two minutes.

"Would it be weird if I went to see her?" I asked and I knew Edward was smirking below me.

"Just waiting for you to ask," he replied smugly and I growled warningly.

"Well." I demanded.

"What do you think about her?" He asked me instead of replying and I would have been annoyed at any other time, except this was one of the things I had been trying to figure out for the past two hours and I was hoping Edward would help me sought out my own thoughts.

"I don't know." I muttered, "before today thoughts of her didn't even cross my mind. I don't have any classes with her and besides your whining about her smell" – Edward growled – "she's no different from any other human we came across at the school. But damn Edward when I looked at her I swear I could feel my heart beating, everything was so clear and she was the clearest of all. But I don't know anything about her and its annoying me to no end that I can't even guess at her middle name! I don't know her favourite colour or what flowers she likes or what it was like growing up with just her mother. I want to know if she can pick out any constellations in the sky and if she follows a sports team. Its killing me not knowing what her favourite subject is and if she likes it here or wants to go home to Phoenix. I want to know everything about her, more than anything, I want to know."

With every sentence I spoke I could feel Edward's grin getting wider until I was sure his face would split in two and when I felt I could pour out no more of my frustration he started laughing.

"What the hell Edward!" I yelled, flipping back upside down again to stare him down as my ever so caring brother cacked himself, the vindictive part of me wanted to push him out of the tree.

"I hate to be the one to have to tell you this Ali cat" he said fondly his voice not apologetic at all "but you have it _sooo_ bad." He added with a completely unnecessary emphasis to the so.

"Don't you think I know that?!" I exclaimed, annoyed at myself as much as Edward. "What I want to know is what I should do about it?" My voice started off irritated but finished in a frustrated whine.

"Well what do you want to do about it?" He asked after a few seconds of silence, which seemed to me to drag on forever.

"That's not helpful advise Edward," I informed him coldly, I could think for myself by myself, I didn't need Edward there to giving me prompting questions like some counselor, if he wasn't going to give me his opinion he should bugger off.

"Ok, ok I'm going." Edward said jokingly, holding up his hands in the surrender position as he responded to my thoughts.

"Well thank goodness," I replied in the same joking manner, but we could both tell there was an underlying sincerity to my words - as much as I valued Edward's presence and opinion, right now, I just needed some time alone to think.

As he leapt gracefully off the branch I swung myself back onto mine, shuffling back until I felt the truck behind me and rested against it, my eyes becoming unfocused as I began to search the future once more.

"Oh and Alice," Edward said before I could be engulfed in a vision and I pushed it down irritably, looking down at the ground where he was standing.

"Yes?" I replied with as much patience as I could muster and he chuckled up at me before his face twisted in a slightly pained expression and my impatience vanished instantly.

"I think you should go for it." He said quietly,but I caught every word and even a few I wasn't meant to as he took off into the trees and my vision sucked me down to finish off the rest of the sentence he had almost uttered.

_"I would give anything to have someone look at me, like she looked at you Ali. You didn't see it, but we all knew she was yours."_

* * *

**A/N: Hello! Firstly, thanks for reading my story, it's pretty awesome to know people are interested in my writing and I really appreciate the reviews I have gotten. And secondly you may be wondering why this chapter is so short, well originally it came out at 6500 words (oops) and I thought this was a bit much to post as once so I'll put half up now and half up tomorrow. Have a good day guys! XD**


	4. Hospital visits

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

Bella's POV

Darkness was everything I felt, everything I could imagine, everything. It filled my entire being like nothing ever had before, its presence cool and calming. Somewhere I could hear laughter and a high soprano voice calling out "Mama, Mama!" and squealing with delight. My mind was so tranquil, the voice lulling me into sleep but then the voice's joyful shout morphed into a terrified shriek of pain, the light soprano became rough with pain, her desperate cries penetrating the darkness, begging for 'it' to stop. And sudden jabs of pain started to shoot through my back and I could hear my own voice adding to the din, I was screaming along with her, my mind ragging against the darkness that kept me caged.

"Bella! Bella! Wake up Bella!" A male voice was adding his deep tenor to the cacophony of screams that echoed in my head but his voice wasn't filled with terror or pain, rather with patience and a only mild concern and as suddenly as the pain had started I was able to open my eyes, but the pain was still there, spasming through my body. It wasn't hard to find the source of my pain; my own muscles were clutched rigidly, causing my back to arch at a painful angle off the narrow bed I had been resting on. My eyes could see only the white wall behind me with an array of buttons and dimly I registered that someone was screaming. Oh, I was. With a conscious effort I clammed my jaw shut but it took me a couple of seconds to convince the muscles in my back to relax and allow me to lie back on the bed. Tremors were still running through my body, even after I'd managed to unclench my muscles and I could feel my heart racing in my ribs, my chest was heaving as my deprived lungs tried to get as much air in as possible after I'd expelled most of it in my screaming. I could only lie on the bed in shock is my vitals started to slowly come back down to normal, though the tremors seemed to be sticking around for the time being. Honestly, I was slightly surprised I didn't have half the hospital rushing into the room to find out why someone was screaming like they were going to die.

"How are you feeling now Ms Swan?" A voice asked from beside me and I let out a hoarse yell before throwing myself sideways, and due to the narrow bed, onto the floor. Or I would have ended up on the floor if I hadn't been grabbed around the middle and held on the bed. My breathing kept coming in gasps and the spasms got more vicious, sending shivers through my whole body every couple of seconds but I was more concerned with the face leaning over me. He had the golden eyes I'd come to associate with the Cullen family along with the perfect blonde hair that Jasper and Rosaline possessed, though his was more was Jasper's length then Rosaline's.

"Could you move?" I asked quietly, scared to breathe too loud in case he, like the other Cullens, decided he hated Bella Swan on sight - though I suppose the trend couldn't quite apply anymore after Alice had thrown herself in front of a van for me.

The Doctor – I was assuming by his white lab coat that's what he was – shifted away, pulling me back onto the bed before he finally released his hold on me and immediately I felt myself let go of a breathe I hadn't known I'd been holding.

"How are you feeling Ms Swan?" He asked and his voice sounded kind but I couldn't know what his facial expression was as my eyes were fixed solely on my legs, covered by a white linen sheet, ashamed for my behaviour earlier; he'd just been doing his job.

"I'm fine now," I muttered to my bed, not daring to look up and he didn't seem to mind my lack of eye contact, or manners in general, as he wrote something down and continued to ask me questions about my wellbeing; was I feeling dizzy, any spots, did the tremors seem to be letting up? I answered him as succinctly as I could, trying not to let my embarrassment show on my face, but from the heat in my cheeks I don't think I managed it.

"Have you had a fit before?" He asked and it came out in the same professional voice as all his other questions but I was so shocked by the seemingly casual inquiry that I any hesitation I had in looking at him vanished as my head whipped up to look at his face, he was perfectly serious.

"Fit?" I asked confusion and apprehension flooding my veins.

"I'm going to go ahead and say you haven't," Doctor Cullen asked kindly and my face must have clearly showed how I felt about such a thing because he continued "don't worry, it's not unusual for a trauma victim to experience such things, and you probably took quite a hit to the head in the crash. Though I've taken a look at the X-rays done to your skull and there appears to be no real damage, so I expect this will be a once off event, though we would like to keep you here overnight, just for observation, nothing serious."

I sighed in relief at his reassurance, meeting his eyes this time and he smiled back, his eyes lighting up in pleasure at my relief – I was struck by the fact that this man really seemed to care and the realisation only made me smile wider.

"Do you feel up to a few visitors Ms Swan?" Doctor Cullen asked but I cut him off;

"It's Bella Doctor Cullen," I said, and he smiled.

"In that case, I'm Carlisle," he replied, holding out his hand as if we were just meeting outside on the street, we shook hands and even through his gloves I could feel the icy cold of his skin.

"The cold comes with being a doctor," He told me, as if reading my mind "there seems to be criteria that every time a doctor touches you, the contact must be freezing."

I laughed despite myself as he played off his hands as the equivalent of a cold stethoscope but I filed the knowledge of his temperature away at the back of my mind for later pondering, after all I was pressed up against Alice for a good five minutes during that crash, there was nothing natural about his temperature.

"So about those guests," Doctor Culeen, no, Carlisle remarked and I grinned nervously, though it felt slightly pained.

"What kind of guests?" I asked and he chuckled;

"Well I think the most of the school is standing in the waiting room waiting for the verdict" he joked and I pulled a horrible expression before telling him, in no uncertain terms, exactly how awful I thought _that_ idea was.

"Well in that case," he chortled, "I suppose I could just send Chief Swan in and give the carpet in the waiting room a rest; he's been wearing a hole in it for the past hour."

"Hour?" I gasped, "I've been out that long?" But Carlisle just continued laughing, saying he would send Charlie in as he made his way out the door.

It only took a few minutes before I heard hurried footsteps in the hall, the thumping of boots getting closer to my room every second before the door was vigorously thrown open to reveal my father, his face flushed and his eyes finding mine instantly.

"Bella!" He cried, crossing the meters to my bed in a few quick steps his arms extended before he suddenly thought better of it, his arms snapping down to his side as he stopped suddenly beside my bed, rocking back on his heels to balance himself.

"It's ok Dad, I don't think I got anything more than a couple of bruises, which I could have gotten no problem on my own." I laughed at my Dad's restraint and his face broke into a wide grin of relief and he threw his arms around me.

It was strange, for my usually stoic father to show so much emotion and I was truly humbling to know this was for me. So I wrapped my arms around him in return and we stayed like that for a few moments, probably not more than a few seconds because Charlie's back looked to be getting stiff, but still it wasn't the length of the moment that mattered, but the fact that it had happened.

When he pulled away Charlie was hastily wiping at his eyes and putting his game face back on so I pretended not to notice his teary eyes and busied myself with explaining the room. He cleared his throat a second later to get my attention and I turned my eyes back to his, his face clearly betrayed his worry.

"Now are you sure you're okay Bells, Doctor Cullen told me what happened earlier, and that they just want to keep you in here overnight but I want you to promise me you'll let someone know if anything's wrong, even if you think you can handle the pain,"

"Dad, its ok," I cut him off mid sentence before he could really get into his stride. "I'm fine, really, and if I'm not, I've got a whole hospital of doctors to make sure I will be. Please don't worry."

"Bells I can't not worry about you, its part of the job," Charlie muttered, turning pleading eyes to me and I could tell the past hour had been tough on him. Imagine hearing that your kid had almost been crushed by a car.

"And you're doing a great job Dad," I replied, throwing in the Dad at the end to try and help his nerves a little bit and he smiled back at me.

A sharp knock interrupted the awkward silence we had fallen into after my last statement just in time and I was so thankful when a police officer poked his head around the door.

"Hey Isabella how're ya doing?" The man asked and I waved at him over my Father's shoulder.

"Good thanks," I replied "better now I'm not under a van" and the guy laughed softly before turning his attention to Charlie.

"Sorry to interrupt Chief, but you're needed down at the station," he said, looking apologetic, and Charlie sighed before turning back to me.

"Now are you sure you're gonna be okay here by yourself Bella?" He asked me and I rolled my eyes at his antics.

"I'm hardly alone," I said, indicating the nurse's button on my head board and Charlie nodded his ascent, hmming under his breath as he rose.

"Well you give me a call if you need me," he said and I nodded my head, silently admitting that I would have to be on my death bed before I actually called Charlie, and even then I would probably have to ask a nurse to do it as a final request.

"Ok, well you be safe now." Charlie said, making his way to the door in an awkward side step and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Just go Dad," I told him and he chuckled at me before turning around fully and following the other officer out into the hall.

Throughout the next hour I had only one other visitor, and I'm ashamed to admit I was disappointed it was Angela with my books, I was half expecting Alice to walk through the door. But it was good to have something to do while I sat around all day, and since I didn't feel like sleeping I dedicated the rest of my day to finishing a lit essay on Hamlet, my life was a riot. Charlie visited me again at dinner time and after stealing the mash off my hospital tray – I assured him I was trying not to look at it let alone think about eating it, he informed me that he'd dropped in to see Francis and told him I why I couldn't work today and the butcher had insisted I take the whole week off. And he'd issued Tyler a fine for dangerous driving; he retold this last story with a pleased grin on his face.

But pretty soon Charlie went home and I was left with only the darkness for company. At first I thought the bustling of the nurses outside my room would keep me up but I must have been more tired than I thought because as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep.

A rustle of fabric woke me up, someone was moving around in my room and I was lying on my side, unable to see anything beside the door in front of me.

"I know you're there," I said to the darkness, and the rustling ceased momentarily before a voice spoke.

"But do you know who I am?" A female said teasingly and I flipped over to see Alice standing by the window, still in the same clothes I saw her in this morning when she got out of the car.

I didn't say anything, preferring to examine the way the moonlight hit the left side of her face, throwing the right side into shadows so the only thing I could see clearly was her eye.

"You shouldn't be here," I said finally and I saw the sadness and acceptance fill her eyes.

"I knew you were going to say that," she muttered, turning towards the window but I kept going before she could do anything else.

"After a crash like that you shouldn't even be walking, let alone standing there." I continued and she turned back to me in surprise.

"Didn't know I'd say that did you?" I said happily, though I'm not sure why I was so pleased with myself but when Alice laughed I found a reason for my happiness, but not an explanation.

"It was one of the many possibilities," she replied, her voice endowed with joy as her light footsteps carried her across the room to by bedside and it looked like she had practically danced across the room.

"May I?" She asked, gesturing at my bed and I nodded, amazed she was even asking.

"Oh yeah, go ahead," I said, shifting my legs to make room and she smiled her thanks at me before hopping onto the bed and crossing her legs over each other. I just stared at her, not having the will power to wrench my eyes away from this angel sitting next to me and she gave me a puzzled look after a couple of seconds, cocking her head to the side.

"Is something wrong?" She asked and I felt blood start rushing to my cheeks and I was thankfully for the darkness to hide it.

"No, you're just the first person to come in here all day that hasn't asked me how I am," I replied and released as soon as she laughed how incredibly conceited that had sounded, good one Bella, you know she was in the accident as well!

"I figured it was probably getting a bit old," she replied, still smiling, "though if you want me to ask," and she let the question hang but I rushed to reassure her I was perfectly happy with the question remaining unasked.

"So what have you been doing?" She asked "besides having multiple visitors who all asked you how you were?"

I chuckled nervously and gestured to the Hamlet book on my bedside table but making sure to keep my eyes on the girl across from me to gauge her reaction.

"May I?" She asked, also gesturing to the book and my eyes widened slight before I bent over to retrieve it and tossed it to her, the awful throw didn't even seem to bother her as she snatched the book out of the air and began flipping through it, glancing at the notes I'd scribbled in the margin.

"_Doubt thou the stars are fire;  
Doubt that the sun doth move;  
Doubt truth to be a liar;  
But never doubt I love."_ Alice quoted regally from the second act and I giggled as she pretended to brandish a sword in the air.

"You know the sun doesn't actually move" I replied, and Alice rolled her eyes, scoffing.

"Please, Bella, you can't bring facts into Shakespeare. Love knows no facts!"

"Good thing this particular play is a tragedy then, isn't it." I replied cheekily, making a grab for the play as Alice held it as high as she could above her head.

"Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and is also one of the most well known love stories in all of history." Alice replied, poking her tongue out at me as I made another grab for the book.

"And we all know how that ended," I said, finally realising I was not going to get the book this way and lunging at Alice, I wrapped one of my arms around her waist and the other reached to grab the book as well fell backwards onto the bed.

"How exactly did it end?" Alice asked, ceasing her struggle to stop me getting the book and allowing me to take it from her loose grip.

"With them both dead," I replied easily, before I realised exactly what position we had ended up in. Alice was lying beneath me, her breathing even and her expression showing just mild curiosity even as I felt own cheeks were heating up, get a grip Bella.

"Er sorry," I muttered pulling myself up and Alice giggled, sitting up as well.

"For what?" She asked curiously and I stuttered nervously for a few moments – unsure exactly what I had been apologising for - before she took pity on me and laughed, shaking her head.

"It's ok Bella, don't have a seizure." She said, still cheerily but as soon as the words left her mouth I stiffened, dimly I registered that the screaming had started up again, but I was trying to keep myself planted in this reality so I pushed it aside.

"Bella?" Alice asked nervously, and I blinked away the haze that had started to develop over my eyes as I re-focused on her.

"Yeah," I mumbled, pulling my focus fully back to her as the voices faded into the background.

"Are you ok?" She asked and I nodded, trying to hitch a smile back onto my face as she continued to look at me, her eyes filled with concern.

As a slightly awkward silence began to fall over the room and I couldn't help blurting out the first thing that popped into my head.

"I didn't think you'd actually come to talk to me." As soon as the sentence was out of my mouth I wanted to take it back, the look on Alice's face showed she was hurt by what I'd say.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," I started but Alice shook her head, telling me to stop.

"It's ok; you only just met me, you don't have to trust me right away. In fact, it's probably better that you don't." She looked thoughtfully at her last sentence and I felt the blush returning to my cheeks and ducked my head so she wouldn't see it.

"I'm still sorry," I muttered and I could feel, rather than see Alice's smile, again silence settled over the room before Alice spoke up.

"I can't answer that," she said and I looked up in confusion.

"I didn't say anything," I muttered and she shook her head, looking both amused and sad.

"You didn't have to; I know you were wondering how I stopped the truck."

"Well what about,"

"I can't tell you how I got over there so fast either," she muttered and I scrunched my face up in confusion.

"Well what can you tell me then?" I asked, my words coming out harsher then I'd first intended.

"Not much," she replied, "it's not exactly my secret to tell." She elaborated.

"Then whose is it?"

"My family's."

Great, I thought. When she said it was someone else's I figured I might be able to convince them to tell me and it just so happened that the only three people that hated me (that I knew about) were the ones who kept the only secret I desperately wanted to learn.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?" I asked and I she shrugged,

"Don't go with Jessica to Port Angeles next Friday"

"Huh?" I made a noise of confusion, looking at here like she was mad, but she just smiled winningly at me.

"You asked if there was anything I could tell you, and I told you,"

"Yes, yes I got that part" I said huffily, crossing my arms across my chest and looking at her sternly. "I meant, is there anything you can tell me about your secret." I whispered the last two words, like if I said it too loudly the FIB was going to fall out of the ceiling or something.

Alice took a deep breath, her chest swelling under the intake of air, before she let it out with a woosh.

"How about I make you a deal," she said and paused before I urged her to continue.

"Ok, so here's the thing, I can't tell you what 'the secret'" – she put little quotation marks around the two words – "is, and I'm not going to play guessing games with you like five year olds – if I did that I might as well tell you right now. But seeing as you've already seen some of what we're capable of, why don't you hang out with my family and I for the week. And if we haven't scared you off by then, I'll tell you."

I couldn't say it was what I'd been expecting but it was better than not knowing at all, though I can't say I was thrilled with the idea of spending my time trying to talk to a family who so obviously had it out for me, but maybe that was the point!

"You're not going to _try_ and scary me off are you?" I demanded, looking accusingly at Alice who held her hands up in the surrender position.

"Cross my heart, there will be no foul play." She emphasized her point by drawing a cross over her heart with her index finger. "But I would like to ask some questions of my own." She admitted sheepishly and I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm not answering anything till you do," I muttered childishly and she pouted.

"Aw come on, my secrets aren't just mine to keep, you're only holding back cause I am!"

"Well how do I know you won't subtract the deal if there's nothing to be gained for you at the end?" I huffed and Alice pouted harder.

"Fine, but you have to promise to tell me at the end of the week." She said dramatically and I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"Deal," I muttered, sticking out my hand to shake hers, she offered hers a bit more hesitantly and I knew she was afraid I would pull away when the cold of her hand met mine, but I held on to her frozen digits and looked her in the eye.

"I'm not afraid you know." I said and her eyes widened in surprise before her face broke into a pleased smirk.

"I'm glad; it would hardly be any fun if you were."


	5. A week in the life of a Cullen

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

Time seemed to crawl by once I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday morning and Charlie took me home for some "bed rest". It was bazaar lying on the couch and watching him try to take care of me when I was perfectly capable of doing so myself, though I hoped I would never be incapacitated so I would have to rely on him. His intentions were good, it was just the execution he needed help on – for example the fact that he rented me movies showed amazing attention to detail – the blankets and food were basic needs - except he got me a documentary of a baseball player, see what I mean, execution needs work.

So I spent the entirety of Thursday and Friday on the couch, with the exception of meals which Charlie ordered in from various take out joints. By the time Saturday crawled around, and I was once again allowed independence, I was sick of eating pizza for breakfast and was totally restless. But since Francis had refused to allow me in the butcher for anything I was stuck for something to do. I called Angela and talked to her for a good ten minutes – she warned me that the whole class was going to bombard me with questions as soon as I got back, after we ran out of small talk – the weather is Folks isn't very accommodating for those of us with inadequate social skills that need the weather to change often in order to make conversation. So after a hasty good bye to avoid that awkward silence we hung up and I was left with nothing to do, once again. I ended up watching the movie my Dad rented when at 7:30 I could no longer stand staring at the ceiling and about half through I inevitably fell asleep and as my mind surrendered to the darkness, my subconscious took over and I dreamed.

I was standing on a rocky outcrop, at the bottom of a cliff face, the sea spray flying up around me but I couldn't feel its icy touch against my skin, instead my eyes were transfixed upon the person I above me. Even from this distance I would recognise that short black hair and pale skin anywhere; Alice. She was standing along above me on the cliff top, gazing outwards the horizon and the rough seas. Suddenly I was moving, scaling the cliff's slippery surface to reach the figure above me, my hands seemed to find ledges easily and I ascended swiftly until I was just metres from reaching her, my hands stretching up further each step I took, desperation reflected in my movements as I tried to reach for her. Suddenly she looked down at me and her eyes radiated with darkness and sadness.

"Who am I?" She whispered to me and I whimpered at the pain in her voice.

I climbed the last few metres to reach her and clambering up onto the ledge beside her, still not knowing what to say to her question and we just stood opposite each other, neither doing anything, I don't even think I was breathing and then she reached for me, her hand inches away from mine, hesitated before brushing her fingers across the back of my hand and trailing down to link our fingers. Then slowly, she raised our interlocked hands so they rested between us, her golden eyes never leaving mine during the whole exchange.

And suddenly the answer to her question came to me; "You're Alice" I told her, my tone mirroring her hushed one from before and I watched her face which was blank seconds ago morph to into a look of surprise and then anger.

"You don't know me," she replied quietly before gaining volume. "YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" She screamed wrenching her hand violently out of mine and running towards a dark shape lurking on the edge of a forest that had a materialised by the shore line. She threw herself into the arms of the shadow, sobbing into its shoulder. Slowly the clouds covering the moon began to move and the light hit the shadows revealing blonde hair and black eyes of Jasper, staring hungrily at me, the arms of the demon wrapped around Alice, comforting her.

"Stay away from my mate!" Jasper hissed threateningly, dropping his mouth down to claim Alice's in a rough kiss, his lips slanting across hers as she kissed him back with the same desperation and slowly their figures began to fade into the darkness as groping hands began to wonder each other's bodies. And shortly I was left alone in the darkness, the harsh sea wind whipping my hair around my body.

"I will know you Alice," I whispered to the night, and the wind howled its agreement, as the world around me started to fade to white and I opened my eyes back up to the real world.

"Hmph" I grumbled to the wall, blinking sleep out of my eyes and rolling onto my back, "that was weird" I told the ceiling. Taking a quick glance at the clock revealed school to start in an hour and with a sigh I reluctantly tossed the covers off the shuffled to my cupboard. I'd never been particularly keen on shopping so my wardrobe had only the essential t-shirts, singlet tops and jeans plus the occasional jersey but I decided then and there that I should get something with a bit more colour as I grabbed my two least faded singlets; white and green, a plain black hoodie and a pair of dark jeans. Was this the best I could do? Yes, it was, and I wanted to look good today. After a quick shower I stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen where Charlie was sitting at the wooden table in the middle of the room sipping his morning coffee.

"Morning" I mumbled, grabbing a muesli bar out of the cupboard and sitting down opposite him.

"Is that all you're gonna have?" He asked and I rolled my eyes, biting into the chewy oats and berry bar.

"I'll grab some cereal in a sec" I muttered, "besides I can never eat much in the morning, just makes me feel sick"

"Hhm," Charlie answered, taking another slip from his coffee and leaving me to my breakfast until I got up to get the cereal.

"Do you really want to go today Bella?" He asked as I fished the wheat-bix out from the back of the cupboard.

"Very much so," I replied swiftly, the restlessness from the other day coming back full force at just the mention of staying home again. I grabbed a spoon from the second draw, the milk bottle already on the table, and returned to my seat – pouring milk into the bowl as soon as I sat down.

"You sure you're going to be ok today Bells?" He asked again, as I shovelled cereal into my mouth.

"Yes Dad," I replied exasperatedly once I'd swallowed my mouthful, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. It was really quite touching that Charlie had taken to the role of protective father so well but it was quickly becoming annoying as I was used to by the adult figure in the household with Renee and thought myself quite capable of making my own decisions. And I definitely wasn't prepared to sit around at home for another day when I had only just made it to Monday. Getting up from the table I tipped the last quarter of cereal into the bin, rinsed and stacked the bowl, before grabbing my car keys from the kitchen table and shooting Charlie a look of vexation at his worried expression.

"I'll be fine Dad," I reassured him, looking him in the eye, trying to communicate how serious I was. "And if I feel sick or anything I'll come home." I added when Charlie looked sceptical and this seemed to make him relax a little.

"Well if you're really sure," he said warily and I took this as the closest thing to his best wishes as I was going to get and I smiled at him before turning around and heading for the front door, calling out over my shoulder that I was going to the butcher this afternoon and would be home about five thirty, shutting the door quickly behind me before Charlie could mount an protest.

Hurrying across the driveway, I hopped up into my truck and only allowed the sigh of relief to escape my lips once I was safely inside the cabin. I knew Charlie was peering out the kitchen window so I didn't sit too long in the driveway, pumping the clutch to get the truck to go into reverse – the gears stuck a bit, I pulled carefully out.

* * *

The ice had thawed sometime on Sunday and now all that remained was a soggy mess on the roads, but I was careful not to drive over large patches of it, I wasn't sure I should be taking any chances with the way my luck was going. I got to the school ten minutes before class was due to start and most of the parks were already taken, I spotted the silver Volvo already parked at the far end of the lot. Quickly pulling into the first park I saw I cut the engine and look up at the masses on the front lawn - already I could see most of the student body whispering to their friends and pointing towards my truck, their mouths going at a hundred miles a minute. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before grabbing my book off the passenger seat and getting out of the truck, instantly all eyes were on me. Taking a gulp seemed to help settle my fight or flight reflex so I took another deep breath and slowly began to make my way towards the student body, who looked more like hungry animals at the moment. With a just a few metres separating me from the others I prepared myself for a barrage of questions.

"BELLA!" A high pitched voice exclaimed from behind me and I turned to find Alice waving frantically at me from across the car park, her family emerging from the Volvo behind her. She gave Jasper a quick hug which set my nerves on edge for a second before I got hold of myself, mentally repeating to myself that it was just a dream. And then she was making her way towards me, her family a few steps behind.

"Good morning," she said happily as she reached me, beaming up at me and threading her arm through mine.

"Morning," I said unsurely, ignoring the chills the contact with her skin sent through my body.

"I hope you're not going back on our bargain already," she said cheekily, still smiling up at me as she navigated her way through the crowd, though she didn't need to work too hard, most people got out of the way as she approached them.

I blinked, not sure how to respond to that and she laughed at my dumbfounded expression.

"You didn't think I was just going to make you sit awkwardly at with us at lunch did you?" She asked, her voice tinged with amused as my cheeks flushed slightly, behind me I heard someone growl and I tried to tilt my head – without appearing obvious - so I could see if it was Jasper or Edward.

"Relax Bella," Alice said softly beside me, unthreading our arms and reaching up to rest her hand against my cheek as she turned my face back to her, the cold of her hands helping my blush to fade.

"They promised to play nice," she added when I was facing her and the blush threatened to return but I managed to force my embarrassment down.

"Well that's reassuring" I muttered, looking down at my feet as we moved through the front doors and Alice giggled lightly next to me as the students continued to almost jump out of our way.

"Thanks for rescuing me back there," I said as yet another curious glance was shot at me before the student moved out of the path of destruction the Cullens were causing in the crowd.

"No problem at all," Alice replied, and from the sound of her voice she was smiling but I didn't look up to check. "That's what friends do."

Friends? That did make me look up, and Alice was just staring at me curiously, waiting for my response, but I wasn't sure what she wanted me to do so I just settled for smiling and it seemed to be the right thing because her face lit up with joy.

"Well I'll see you after class then Bella!" Alice said cheerfully and I looked away from her to see the door to my physics class in front of us, when had we got here?

"Yeah, after class" I muttered distractedly, still trying to figure out how I'd ended up here and Alice laughed musically, waving as she darted back through the crowd towards, I assumed, her own class.

"Well, are you going in?" A voice asked behind me and I squeaked in fright, spinning around quickly to find Jasper standing a few feet behind me, his expression slightly pained but it was an improvement on the glaring.

"Oh yeah, sorry" I stuttered, reaching blindly for the doorknob behind me, my eyes never leaving his.

"It's a bit to the left," Jasper said blankly, his voice giving away nothing as to what he thought of me, his expression unchanged.

"Yours or mine?" I asked without thinking and regretted it for just a second before Jasper's face broke into an amused grin.

"Yours" he replied and I smiled at him as I found the door knob and finally managed to open the door. I turned on my heels and walked into the classroom, intending to head for my usual seat when a light touch on my arm stopped me. Turning around to face my former enemy I saw Jasper jab his finger at the back row.

"What?" I asked, confused for a second before I realised he was _telling_ me to sit with him – I wasn't under the delusion he was asking.

"Oh, ok" I faltered, glancing around the classroom before following his lead to the back of the room.

The rest of the lesson passed in awkward silence with both Jasper and I trying our best to ignore the others presence and pay attention – or I tried to pay attention, Jasper seemed to have gained a sudden interest in a poster about nuclear fusion and had turned his body right away from me so he could stare avidly at it the entire lesson.

When the bell rang he was still staring at it and only moved once I'd stood up, my back pack slung over my shoulder. With a sigh he picked up his own pack – he hadn't even bothered getting his book out – and moved to follow me out of the room.

It was a slight surprise for me to find Alice was waiting for us in the corridor, even though she'd said she would be I'd sort of figured it was just a polite fare well. Trying not to let my surprise show on my face I led the way over to her and she smiled as we approached.

"Hey, how was it?" She asked and I wasn't sure if she was talking to Jasper or me so I just kept quiet, in the corner of my eye I saw Jasper shrug and Alice seemed to accept this as an answer before turning her eyes to me.

"Bella?" She asked her tone patient and I shrugged as well, confused as to what exactly she was asking about – the physics lesson or the interaction with Jasper - though I suppose the shrug summed both of them up.

"Well I suppose I'd better get going," Jasper said before an awkward silence could fall over us and I was momentarily shocked. He'd strung more than three words together!

"See ya at lunch Jazz" Alice said, waving at Jasper's departing back before turning back to me an unreadable expression on her face.

"So, Lit?" She asked and I nodded, not bothering to acknowledge she'd memorised my time table.

"So what did you just have" I inquired, genially interested and she seemed to perk up at my interest and began to tell me, passionately, about her art class. On some level she reminded me of my mother, taking over the conversation and talking with a passion that both amused and scared me. Her hands made gestures as she tried to explain exactly what she'd been painting and I found myself imaging her standing by a canvas creating the pictures she was describing, there was a desert, the ocean shore with the sun just rising, the colosseum in Rome and;

"A meadow" I said cutting Alice off where she just about to tell me what she was wanted to work on next.

"How did you know that?" She asked, shock appearing on her face and I'm sure it mirrored my own.

"Um, lucky guess" I said unsurely and Alice face morphed into a puzzled look before smiling at me.

"You really are something Bella Swan," she said her tone coloured with intrigue and I grinned nervously.

"I hope that's a good thing," I replied and she smiled smugly.

"Personally I think so, but Edward seems to think it's very bad for your health." Alice shrugged at the end of her statement and I made a face at the mention of her brother.

"Don't worry," Alice said as we stopped outside my Lit class "they'll get used to it, trust me." She stressed the last two words as she smiled at me and I couldn't help smiling back.

"So I'll you at lunch?" She asked and I had a sense of Déjà vu.

"Sure" I replied, and she waved to me before practically dancing down the hall as I entered Lit.

The class seemed to fly by and I wasn't sure if this meant I was anticipating lunch with dread or excitement, I just knew that butterflies seemed to have taken up permanent residence in my stomach and for every second I spent in the company of the Cullens they would flutter wildly. Again I was met at the door by Alice, a wide smile adorning her features and lighting up her eyes and for a second I admired the effect it had on her beauty, if it was possible of her to be more perfect.

Her giggling brought me out of my daze and I blushed, I was doing that a lot today.

"You coming?" She asked, cocking her head down the hall and I nodded eagerly, deciding that if I was going spend the whole week with the Cullens I was going to at least try and enjoy it. It was humbling walking next to Alice, every step I took seemed to be clumsy, as if I was walking in clown shoes while she danced down the hall, her boots never even making a sound. Just before we walked into the lunch room the pixie like girl put her hand on my arm to stop me going in.

"I just thought I'd warn you," she said, looking serious "that everyone is going to stare when we walk in there."

"I kinda figured," I muttered, looking down at my shoes and I was aware of Alice nodding her acceptance in my peripheral vision.

"In that case," she said, "let's go" and she pushed the door open and entered with her head held high. My entry was less then graceful; I tripped two steps into the room and spent the rest of the walk to the food line with my eyes on my feet, trusting Alice not to walk me into a wall or something. When we reached the serving area there was no one there so we were able to grab our food quite quickly – I was surprised when Alice took some of almost everything, judging from her size I wouldn't think she'd eat all that much. I myself only grabbed an apple as my nerves had taken away my appetite. As we approached the Cullen table I felt the gaze of the entire cafeteria increase in intensity but I was trying desperately to keep my eyes on Alice's back so I didn't have to meet anyone's eye. And then I was standing next to Alice, in front of the Cullen table. The first to meet my eyes was Jasper, his eyes still frighteningly dark but not the black they had been when I first met him, he nodded to me in greeting and smiled nervously back before looking at Edward who was sitting opposite him. The boy seemed to be trying to glare holes in my head but as soon as I'd thought this he averted his eyes and I looked over to the girl sitting next to Edward, she was pointedly engaging the last guy – Emmett, in conversation and he smiled only briefly at me before his attention was once again claimed by his girlfriend.

"Hey guys!" Alice said enthusiastically, seating herself next to Jasper and leaving the seat next to her and opposite Emmett open for me.

"This is Bella." Alice continued as I plopped down next to her.

"Hey Alice," Rosaline said purposefully and I sunk slightly in my seat, hunching my shoulders and taking a bite out of my apple.

"Hello Bella," a male voice greeted me and I looked up in surprise to find Edward meeting my eyes, his usual scowl replaced with a crooked smile.

"Hey," I muttered weakly, "how's it going?"

"Well thank you" he replied and I almost choked on my apple, hiding it behind a cough as I looked quickly down at the table – he sounded like my grandmother!

"Sorry that sounded weird," he said suddenly and I looked up curiously. "We're a bit nervous" he confessed, gesturing to the table "we don't do this very often."

"Speak for yourself," Rosaline muttered and then winced, her features scrunched in pain only for a second before becoming annoyance.

"What the hell Alice?!" She exclaimed and I turned to face Alice, her expression also annoyed.

"You don't have to be here you know Rose," she said sharply and I heard Rosaline sniff loudly.

"Are you kicking me off my own table?" She asked and Alice glared at her then mouthed something at the girl but I couldn't read lips to understand what was said, plus her mouth was moving so fast I don't think I would have caught it even if I could read lips.

"Slow down guys," Edward said calmly and I felt a sudden wave of calmness wash over me completely overwhelming my nerves and leaving me feeling slightly disorientated. By the time I'd gathered my wits about me again Rosaline was standing up, Emmett beside her and with one last glare at me she sauntered out of the cafeteria.

"Did I do something?" I asked and beside me Alice laughed bitterly.

"No Bella, you were perfectly normal, that was just my sister being incredibly rude." She replied and I could hear a hint of annoyance that still lingered in her voice.

The rest the lunch hour was spent in relative silence, but during the course of the week the atmosphere became more relaxed. Mostly Alice led the conversation, chatting about classes and the teachers, as well as asking me about my life back in Phoenix. Surprisingly Edward was also quite talkative, though moody. Occasionally Jasper would offer his opinions but out of the three of us he seemed most content to listen to us chat with his arm wrapped lovingly around Alice's waist.

Rosaline and Emmett didn't sit with us on the Tuesday or Wednesday but by Thursday they were back at the table – though Rosaline stubbornly refused to talk to anyone but Emmett. Occasionally Emmett would strike up a conversation with me but mostly, like all the other Cullens, he just pushed his food around his tray. This was another thing I noticed about the already odd family; they never ate, not one of them. Sure, they all piled food on their trays but it all appeared to go in the bin after the hour was up. I asked Alice about it one day after lunch and she just laughed and told me that 'all would be revealed.'

I never told anyone but I'd taken to keeping a list of all the strange things the Cullens did, it was becoming rather lengthy with all the time I was getting to observe them.

They could easily live through car crashes

They were really fast

They were really pale

They didn't eat anything

They were very beautiful

They were graceful – secretly I wanted to see one of them fall over, just once!

They had ridiculously good eye sight and hearing

And Edward seemed to know exactly what I was thinking - this one probably creeped me out the most.

But it seemed that the Cullens were just going to get weirder. It was in the cafeteria on Thursday and Alice was half way through a particularly entertaining recount of the school play last year – 'My Fair Lady' – when she suddenly went silent, her eyes glazing over and her hands stilling in the middle of a motion.

"Alice?" I said unsurely, reaching out towards her.

"She's ok," Jasper said, pulling the girl against him a bit tighter but I kept reaching for her anyway and rested my hand on her shoulder, about to gently shake her when suddenly the cafeteria erupted with noise.

"YOU CAN'T TELL HER!" Rosaline was screaming and I wanted to look around to see why but I couldn't tear my hand from Alice's shoulder or my eyes from her face and the voices kept going.

"I'LL TELL HER WHATEVER I WANT!" Alice yelled back and I couldn't understand where it had come from, Alice's mouth wasn't moving, and then I realised – they were in my head!

"DID YOU FORGET ABOUT THE VOLTURI!?" Rosaline kept yelling and I tried desperately to will my body to move, but it was having none of it.

"THEY WON'T FIND OUT UNLESS YOU TELL THEM!" Alice countered and Rosaline scoffed and someone growled.

"She won't tell them Alice," Edward's voice this time, this was the first time I'd heard anyone other than Alice, it was turning out to be interesting.

"She'll accept us Rose, I've seen it" Alice said smugly and I heard Rosaline's mocking laughter.

"She'll accept us! We're vampires Alice, MONSTERS. She. Will. Fear. Us." Rosaline let her words hang in the air and slowly the trance began to clear as I became aware of my surroundings again.

To my shock and horror Jasper and Edward were fighting on the floor next our table; Jasper was viciously struggling against Edward; crawling and ripping at his clothes, trying to get up.

"Jasper!" Alice cried desperately from beside me, as she threw herself off the table and towards her boyfriend who threw Edward off him and enveloped her in his arms, pulling her to his chest. I could only watch in shock as Jasper buried his face in Alice's neck, sighing in relief as she carded her hands through his hair.

Edward seemed to have realised Alice would calm Jasper down and had allowed himself to be thrown; he landed in a crouch before straightening up, tugging at his ripped clothes before looking up and meeting eyes with me.

"Bella?" He said tentatively, stepping unsurely towards me and I glanced, horrified, between the couple still locked in each other's embrace on the floor, to the Greek god standing just metres away from me, looking at me as if _I_ too would become hostile at any second.

Another one for the list – contact with Alice Cullen makes me hear voices in my head and let's not forget; I was hanging out with vampires.

"Vampire" I whispered aloud and watched Edward stiffen, his expression full of shock. On the floor I'm sure both Alice and Jasper froze as well and I could see Edward actually stop breathing.

And the voices irrupted, I could barely concentrate through all the noise and through the pain in my head I could see Edward's face morph into horror as he reached out for me and I think someone growled but all I could think about was getting away from here; away from the vampires, away from the voices, away from the madness.

I stumbled up from where I was sitting but managed to remain on my feet as I ran, blindly through the cafeteria, my eyes squinting against the pain in my head. I reached the doors and pushed them as hard as I could, running down the empty corridor. Behind me I think people were calling my name but that could have just been the voices in my head, I wasn't sure what reality was anymore so I just kept running.


	6. Faint

It felt like forever before I managed to make it out of the school, my heart pounding and breathe coming in gasps. By this point I was basically blind with only my sense of touch to guide me. It wasn't much of a surprise for me to fall down the two steps just outside the front door and land heavily on the pavement. Sobs racked my body as I tried to fight against the blindness and confusion and keep going.

A cold, but gentle hand came to rest on my arm and I was slowly rolled over so I could make out the blurry figure of Edward above me. His lips were moving so for a few moments I come see a dark spot on his face before his lips came together again, I think he was talking to me but I couldn't hear anything. And then he was lifting me up, his stone cold arms wrapping around my figure as he carried me carefully. In some far recess of my mind I knew I should be struggling, I didn't know where he was taking me, but his gentle grip was comforting and honestly I was just thankful not to be lying on the cold concrete anymore. His steps were smooth, barely rocking me, and I fought to remain conscious of where we were headed by counting the number of steps he took, but my muddled mind couldn't remember what came after seven. I didn't even register when we'd stopped except when I felt a firm surface beneath my back and quite an appealing scent permeated my nose. In the far recess of my mind I identified the smell to be one of new car and leather, mixed with the unique scent of the Cullens. He must have set me down on the seat, rather than the floor as I was expecting, as it was so soft and cool against my burning skin and my eyelids were fighting a losing battle to stay open. The throbbing in my head increased and the voice's continued to assault me with their screams.

"Edward" I gasped out, even to my ears my voice sounded strained and raspy, full of pain. I knew I should ask him where we were going, had to ask him, but he just put his finger against my lips and the world slowly lost colour.

"What happened? Is she going to be ok? How did she find out about us? Oh Jazz let me go she's not going to hurt me!" The first thing I realised was that the pain in my head was gone and I was no longer lying on Edward's back seat. Instead I was lying on a mattress that felt as if it had been made in heaven and around me swam the fragrance of the heaven's themselves. It was warm as it was cool, like both the sun and the snow. It was fruity and tropical, reminding me of warm days in the sun but there was an underlying hint of sweetness and something else, something I couldn't give a name to but it was so addictive I felt I could have lain here happily for the rest of my days. I inhaled a few times, allowing the thoughts to seep from my head and let the fog of scent take up residence behind my eyes. But there was something nagging at my consciousness, something important, someone important....Alice! Alice was talking and she sounded, concerned? I wasn't quite sure, her last statement had sounded annoyed. Why was she annoyed? I dearly wanted to ask her, she seemed to have such fascinating things to say, but there was this fog in my head and I kept become distracted. There was something I had to remember...

"I'm hoping she can answer some of those questions," this voice was male and calming, I know I had heard it somewhere before but I couldn't quite put a name to it.

"She's going to wake up soon," Alice said suddenly and I wanted to tell her I was already awake but my mouth didn't seem to be responding to my brain.

"Bella, can you hear us?" The male voice asked, and a cold hand came to rest on my shoulder which felt distinctly female.

"Ah," I tried to reply, focusing all my effort on making my mouth move but all that came out of my throat was a dull noise.

"Get her some water," the male voice said and I felt myself being gently propped up on some pillows as the hand left my shoulder and a brief breeze moved across my skin, what was I meant to be doing again? I felt like I should do something.

"Can you open your eyes Bella?" The voice asked and suddenly I could place it! Doctor Carlisle Cullen, adoptive father of the Cullen siblings. But he was asking me to do something; I had to open my eyes, could I do that? I tried, concentrating on lifting my heavy eyelids, and slowly the world began to come into view. At first it was blurry but I blinked a few times and it started to come into focus. I had been right, I was lying on a mattress, a large king sized one with soft yellow sheets. Carlisle was sitting on the edge of the bed next to me, looking at me with concern and lined up along the wall were Jasper, Edward and Alice, the latter holding a glass of water.

"Bella?" Alice said cautiously, her voice full of concern.

"Wa" I croaked, before clearing my throat with a cough and trying again.

"Water," I said, reaching out for the glass she held but before I'd even finished my request she was besides me with the glass extended, I hadn't even seen her move.

I stared at her outstretched hand for a second, shocked by the display of speed despite knowing she could do it, before I pulled myself together and took the glass. But my hands shook with the effort of holding it and suddenly cool hands wrapped around my own and I looked up from the glass to meet Alice's eyes. Her face broke into a cautious smile as she helped me lift the glass to my mouth and take a few sips before lowering it and gently removing it from my grasp, her eyes never leaving mine.

"How do you feel Bella?" Carlisle asked me as Alice set the glass down on my bedside table and sat down cautiously on the other side of my bed.

"F-fine" I said, clearing my thought before trying again; "fine."

Carlisle and Alice shared a look and I knew instinctively what his next question would be.

"How much do you remember before you passed out?"

Passed out, I thought, is that how I got here and I sudden sigh of relief made me turn my head towards Edward.

"What?" I asked nervously, looking between the family members and seeing the same relief mirrored on all their faces, except, Alice's.

Where the other were elated at my memory loss Alice looked confused and a little broken.

What had happened?

I racked my memory desperately, searching for any hint of the past few hours but there was only darkness and, and there was something else I could almost touch it...

"Bella are you feeling better now?" Edward asked suddenly, breaking my concentration and drawing all the eyes in the room to him.

"Uh yeah, I feel fine," I mumbled, confusion clear in my tone. "What, um, happened?" I asked, my eyes reverted on Edward, waiting for an explanation.

"We were at lunch when you said you felt faint, Alice offered to take you to the nurse but you said you'd be fine. When you didn't come to class I went looking and found you passed out on the front path, from the grazes on your knee I'd say you fell down the stairs." Edward replied.

"Oh," I said unsurely, but I had to admit the story sounded exactly like something that'd happened to me back in phoenix. An awkward silence over the room as the events of the past hour sunk in but there was still one issue I was confused on.

"But how did I get here?" I asked, looking between the faces around me and they all stared back at me in concern, it was a bit un-nerving.

"I brought you," Edward replied, "when I saw you lying there, unconscious, I didn't really think of the nurse, though now I think about it I was probably a bit irrational. I called Alice and Jasper from classes and we brought you back here because I knew Dad had the day off."

"Oh, um, thank you" I said, turning my head to address everyone in the room, still genially stunned at the generosity of the Cullens and they all smiled back warmly at me.

"It was a pleasure Bella" Carlisle warmly and I felt a blush slowly rise in my cheeks.

Across the room something growled and I whirled around to find Edward hurriedly pushing Jasper from the room, his eyes fixed on me with the same jet black stare he'd given me first day of school.

I gulped and shifted closer to Alice, who likewise moved closer, her body placed minutely in front of my own. I couldn't see her face as her eyes were fixed on Jasper, but her shoulders were tensed and her hand, which had been resting on the quilt, was now clutching it tightly.

And then the door was closed and Jasper and Edward were outside in the hall, the whole event taking place in less than thirty seconds but Alice remained tense until I placed my hand on her shoulder. The moment my fingers made contact with the skin of her shoulder then tension drained from her body and she turned her head to look at me, a tentative smile gracing her lips.

"Sorry about that," she muttered, laughing nervously. "Jasper's the newest addition to our family, and you sometimes remind him of his sister." She said the last part sadly and my eyes grew wide in understanding.

"I'm so sorry," I said sincerely, glancing worried at the door, but Alice's face just broke into a wide grin at my seriousness.

"It's not like you can help it," she laughed, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Well," I laughed nervously, "I guess I could dye my hair" I said, grabbing a lock of my plain brown hair between my fingers.

"No don't!" Alice exclaimed suddenly her hand flying out to grasp my wrist.

"What?" I said in confusion, my hand stilling instantly.

A sheepish look overtook Alice's face, the kind normally accompanied with a blush, but her skin remained its usual porcelain perfection though her face was ducked nervously, hiding her eyes.

"I like your hair," she said shyly, grinning up at me through her bangs.

Slowly she loosened her grip on my wrist but never fully letting go she trailed her hand up over my own and along my fingers till she clutched the strand of hair in her own hands, my own hand falling limply onto the quilt.

"It's beautiful" she whispered serenely, abandoning the single strand of hair in order to run her fingers through the rest of my hair.

"Thank you," I whispered, my eyes locked with hers as the silence stretched between us and her fingers trailed to the tips of my hair. Her eyes shone with something I couldn't identify, the normally light gold irises darkened slightly and her mouth was crooked in a tentative smile.

"Well I'll leave you two alone then shall I?" Carlisle said from beside me and I started, having forgotten he was even in the room.

Getting up from my bed side he nodded at me, then Alice before leaving the room and leaving us alone with the now awkward silence, Alice's hand still tangled in my hair.

"OH!" Alice exclaimed suddenly, taking her hands from my hair, and I couldn't help jumping a little. "Turn around and I'll braid it." She said gleefully and I laughed at her enthusiasm, spinning around so my back faced her and her hands once more tangled themselves in my hair.

"You're hair is so lovely Bella," Alice said blissfully and while I couldn't see her slender fingers I imagined them deftly dividing the strands of my hair into three parts.

"Thank you, I grew it myself," I replied proudly and Alice giggled.

"Sometimes I wish my hair was long enough to do interesting things with" Alice said as she began to thread the strands together, pulling gently to remove the lumps and I found myself relaxing into the rhyme of her work.

"I reckon your hair is plenty interesting" I informed her and I could feel her smile behind me.

"Why thank you," she said playfully, "but it's always the same, where your hair can be styled differently every day." She bundled the braid she had made on top of my head as she said this last part and I rolled my eyes at her even thought she couldn't see. Flipping around and I pretended to examine her hair for a moment, placing my hand on my chin for added dramatics. Then I reached forward quickly and ruffled her hair as she shrieked in protest at my actions, rolling away from me and covering her rumpled hair with her hands.

"Now it's different" I said smugly and Alice glared at me for a few seconds before poking her tongue out.

"You know I'll have to get you back for that," she said simply and I grinned.

"I'd like to see you try."

With a growl Alice leapt across the bed, pushing me back down onto the pillows and pinning my arms at my side.

"Got cha" she said cheekily and I glared playfully up at her.

"Did you just growl?" I asked incredulously and Alice's shy look came back instantly.

"Maybe," she said cryptically, her grip loosening slightly and I took advantage of the situation immediately, flipping us so I was on top and her arms were pinned above her head.

"Win," I said happily and Alice huffed crossly at me.

"I should push you off the bed for that" she said grumpily, though I could see a smile tugging at the corner of her lips so I wasn't worried.

"You wouldn't do that to a recovering patient would you?" I asked brokenly and her eyes widened slightly in concern.

"Oh my gosh I totally forgot" she said in a rush, her eyes scanning over my body as if she expected to see a gaping wound.

"Alice, I'm fine" I reassured her, releasing her wrists and sitting down cross legged on the bed next to her, rolling my eyes at her unnecessary worry.

"Are you sure?" She asked apprehensively, mimicking my position.

"Yes," I said firmly, deciding I needed to get off the bed before Alice convinced herself I wasn't and made me lie down again. Bringing my legs out from underneath me I shuffled to the end of the bed and let my legs hang over for a second.

"You need help?" She asked but I shook my head, testing my legs out a few times before putting my full weight on them, I stood up shakily. Upright I swayed slightly but quickly regained my balance.

"Hmm," I hummed happily, stretching my legs a bit and walking around to the other side of the bed and back while Alice watched wearily from the bed, her posture reminding me faintly of a statue, unmoving and focussed.

"So whose room is this?" I asked, breaking the developing tension between us and turning around to fully examine the room for the first time. There were framed photographs on every wall; some black and white and others in colour, all depicting various members of the Cullen family. There were two closed doors which I assumed lead to the bathroom and a walk in robe.

"Mine" Alice said, her cheerful mood returning as I examined the dressing table photos and she got gracefully off the bed to make her way over to me, standing beside me as I bent over to examine the photos.

"It's beautiful," I said, turning to face her and meaning every word.

"Thanks," Alice said happily, "but you haven't even seen the best bit!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the one of the doors and threw it open.

"Woah," I muttered, feeling slightly overwhelmed at the sheer number of clothes that were lined up in the walk in closet, actually no, it was more like a second bed room.

"Impressed?" Alice asked, skipping into the middle of the small room and throwing her arms out wide, twirling around.

"Very," I muttered content to just stand in the door way and watch her enthusiasm.

She stopped spinning and looked over at me before sticking her hip out and crossing her arms -"What are you looking at?"

"You're amazing closet," I answered dramatically, gesturing to the rows of clothes and avoiding Alice's eye.

"Well," Alice said slowly and I turned my gaze back to her, feeling weary at the predatory look in her eyes. "If you're interested, we could always go out and buy you some."

"What? Clothes?" I asked, mildly horrified at the very idea of shopping.

"Obviously" Alice said, rolling her eyes at me before her eyes moved slowly over my body and I felt like I was under inspection.

"You should wear clothes that compliment your figure, not hide it." She finally declared, putting her hands on her hips to finalize her opinion. I gave her a look that told her exactly how crazy I thought she was.

"Yeah, I'll get round to that," I muttered and turned to leave the cupboard when I realised Alice wasn't following, turning back around I saw her eyes were glazed over and I got a strange sense of déjà vu but she quickly snapped out of it and I dismissed the feeling.

As soon as her eyes lost the glassy faraway look a predatory smile had hitched itself onto her face, her teeth gleaming. "Oh you'll get round to it all right," she said cryptically and I gulped, watching as she moved stealthily past me and back into her room, opening the door just as Jasper was raising his hand to knock.

He laughed as he saw Alice standing there and leaned down to give her a hug before turning to look at me, standing next to the open closet door.

"Ah," he muttered in amusement "I see she's showed you her second bedroom." And I couldn't help but laugh in agreement as Alice pouted.

"I thought you liked it?" She said sulkily and Jazz grinned down at her, "Alice dear, it wouldn't be your room if you didn't have a cupboard the same size."

"It's not the same size!" Alice said indignantly before she stopped to consider that, "do you think Esme would let us make it that big though?" She asked and both Jasper and I chuckled at her antics.

"You'll have to ask her later love," Jasper replied. "It's about time for Bella to head home, or Chief Swan might send out the search party."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, looking around the room to find a clock and upon not spotting one I turned back to Jasper. "What's the time?"

"4:15" He answered, and I cursed, I only had 15 minutes to get to home so I could be there before Charlie, otherwise there would be questions as to why it had taken me over an hour and a half to get home from school.

"Don't worry Bella," Alice said "you'll make it if you leave now."

"Oh," I made a noise of surprise at her certainty. "Thanks" I muttered, moving towards the door and the couple took the hint and moved out into the hall.

They led me down a flight of stairs and through the living room to the front door, which Jasper opened with a flourish. I was surprised to find my truck was parked just in front of their front steps and I stepped hesitantly out of the door before remembering my back pack.

"It's in the car," Alice replied before I could ask and I smiled appreciatively at her before thanking them both for taking care of me and moved down the steps.

"Come back soon!" Alice called from the front door and I smiled, waving over my shoulder at them before I got in the car, the keys were already in the ignition and my books were sitting on the passenger seat floor.

"Weird," I muttered, turning the key and listening appreciatively as my truck roared to life. I waved at the couple still standing at the door and smiled as they waved back before I pulled out of the drive and onto a dirt road.


	7. Memories

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

I was thankful for long journey between mine and the Cullen's house as it gave me the time to process everything. It felt like there was something I was missing, some key piece in the puzzle that had gotten lost between lunch and the Cullen's.

I pulled out onto a road that didn't look familiar and I was struck briefly with the horrible thought that I might get lost but soon enough the dirt road turned into bitchumen and the trees thinned out, though never disappeared, that would have meant I was truly lost.

Secure in the fact that I would make it home before Charlie, I let my thoughts wonder back to the strange behaviour of the Cullens. When I woke up they had seemed almost panicked, frantic to know exactly what I remembered before I'd passed out. It was ridiculously suspicious, and even though their story made sense I was still at a loss for what they could possibly be concealing.

There wasn't much about passing out that seemed terribly secretive, unless they'd beaten me up and that's why I'd been unconscious. But seeing as I was only sporting a few scrapes on my knee I could safely rule out that option. I could have passed out in fright, I suppose. But I didn't have a tendency to faint in fear, I'd gotten light headed at the smell of blood before but other than that fainting was rare for me. And then there was the fact that I couldn't remember anything after the start of lunch. I had a blurry recollection of getting some sort of slop from the cafeteria but then nothing, a sort of foreboding blackness took over my vision but there was something else, I knew there was something else but without pulling over I didn't have the concentration needed to recall what it was.

The rest of the journey home seemed to drag on forever, the clock ticking faster than I could possibly drive but I made it home, two minutes after five, and luckily Charlie still wasn't in. Pulling into the drive I made my way quickly into the house and ran up the stairs to my room just as I heard the front door slam shut and Charlie call up the stairs.

"I'm home Bells!"

"Ok Dad!" I yelled back, throwing open the door to my room, to go in mind you, I haven't quite made it there.

"Come down here for a second would you?" Charlie yelled from the front hall.

"Damn it," I cursed quietly in frustration, before I inhaled deeply, closed the door to my room and turned around to go back down the stairs and greet my father.

"Hey Dad," I said, trying not to let my frustration seep into my voice. In the hall Charlie just finished taking off his belt "how was work?"

"It's good, pretty quiet day at the station" he replied, leading us into the kitchen.

"Is it ever a busy day in Folks?" I asked in amusement and Charlie grinned at me over his shoulder

"Rarely," he replied, filling the kettle with water.

I bit my lip impatiently, gazing around the kitchen in hopes of anything to distract me as the water slowly filled the kettle.

"Did you need something Dad?" I asked once I realised Charlie was not going to start talking on his own.

"Well, um, yes" Charlie said gruffly, clearing his throat and putting the full (finally) kettle down.

"I just thought I'd ask, if anyone at school had caught you're eye."

"What?" I asked incredulously, my eyes widening slightly in surprise.

"Well I thought it was important that we stay connected, and that I know what's going on in your life. I know it's not really _cool _to tell your Dad stuff, but I was just reading..." he trailed off.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, finally catching on to what he was insinuating. Embarrassing much, this was like a real life episode of Dr Phil. I don't like Dr Phil, Renee always cried, she kind of ruined it for me.

"No Dad," I reassured him, edging out of the room "trust me, you'll be the first to know if someone 'catches my eye'" I used my fingers to put the quotation marks in. "Don't worry about it at all. And I've got loads of homework, so I'm going to go upstairs. You can do whatever for dinner, I've already eaten. BYE!" I rushed quickly out of the kitchen, clenching my eyes shut in an attempt to black out the most awkward conversation of my life. Not that it was much of a conversation as neither my Dad nor I were very comfortable discussing anything of an emotional nature.

"Ooph" I yelped, opening my eyes to see what I'd run into.

The glass coffee table was today's offender.

"That's gonna bruise" I muttered, rolling my eyes at my own clumsiness before making my way up the stairs at a slower pace.

* * *

It was a huge relief to finally reach my room and throw myself onto the bed. Staring up at the ceiling I had long ago memorised I let my head fall to the side and saw my window was open, the curtains partially outside. That's odd...I thought I'd closed them this morning. Getting up I lent outside, peering left and right before shrugging and closing the window. Flopping back onto the bed I folded my arms behind my head so my elbows lay either side of my face and clenched my eyes shut. And it was dark, very dark. I guess some part of me had hoped for some sort of great recollection without any effort on my part but I suppose fate wanted me to do something.

"Alright," I said to the empty room, keeping my eyes closed.

"I was at lunch, I got the slop, walking back to the table" in my mind's eye I pictured the cafeteria, the Cullen's table to was straight in front of me and Alice waved me over to sit down next to her. Jasper was sitting on her left, rolling a bottle of water between his hands and Edward, Rosaline and Emmett were sitting on the bench facing away from me.

"I sat next to Alice," I said out loud but my narration was getting more unsure as my memories got fuzzier.

"We were talking, no idea what it was about, but then. Alice stopped." I froze as I said the last sentence, sitting bold upright.

"Alice stoped. Why did she stop? There were voices, Rosalie was talking she was yelling, OH MY GOSH! THEY'RE VAM!"

A hand clamped suddenly over my mouth and I screamed.

"Bella, you need to calm down" a voice said firmly from behind me and I felt my eyes tear up in fright but I stopped yelling. The Cullens were vampires and right now Alice was sitting right behind me with her hand over my mouth.

I was going to die.

"Are you ok now?" She asked wearily and I sat absolutely still, not daring to move as my breath came in quick gasps and my heart fought to free itself from my chest.

"Bella?" She asked again and I nodded my head quickly in answer to her question.

"No you're not, you're shaking" she muttered dejectedly and I fought to control my involuntary shudders.

"If you kill me it'll cause a lot of trouble" I said timidly, my voice muffled by her hand.

"I'm so sorry Bella" Alice whispered, her voice sounding crushed. "I'd never; I'm not going to kill you."

My heart skipped a beat.

"Then why are you here?" I asked, my tone tainted with fear but also a mild curiosity, I just hope I wasn't going to be a cat.

"I saw you get your memory back as soon as you left our house," she whispered, hand still over my mouth.

"Wait, you saw" I mumbled into her palm. "Saw what? How can you see anything that hasn't happened? Is this some vampire thing?" I was starting to get hysterical again, and honestly I thought it was justified.

"No, it's just me I can see the future when people make decisions. But please Bella you have to calm down," her tone was tinged with the same panic I could feel running through my own veins.

"Calm down!" I whisper yelled "you're holding me down with your hand over my mouth so I can't scream for help and I just found out you're a vampire! Excuse me if I'm freaking out here!"

"I'll let you up, if you promise not to scream" Alice said and I felt a tiny speck of hope start to blossom in my chest, if she let go for just a second I could alert Charlie.

"I can't let you do that" said Alice, replying to my newly formulated escape plan, and my eyes widened in fright.

"I told you, I can see the future."

I gulped and decided not to scream, instantly the hand around my mouth let go but the arm wrapped around my middle stayed.

"Ok, so say I believe you." I squeaked to the wall in front of me, not turning around to face the girl behind me, "what does that mean, for me?"

"It means that you believe in vampires." Alice said and my breathing slowed down minutely.

"So, believing doesn't get me eaten?" I asked just to be sure and Alice sighed heavily.

"No, I've never even tasted human blood."

"Really?" I asked turning my head around to look at her, curiosity peaked.

"Really" Alice mumbled to my bed, her head hung down so I couldn't see her face.

"So if you're not here to kill me, why are you here?" I asked again, and Alice glanced up briefly from her examination of my covers to meet my eyes.

"I saw you get your memories back; I thought I'd better be here to kind of explain."

"So, explaining involved scaring the wits out of me how?" I asked my voice rising to a squeak.

Alice hung her head in shame.

"I'm sorry" she whispered, "but no one can know what we are. And if I'd let you yell it out Charlie would have heard."

"So?" I whispered, "It's not like he would have believed it."

"If you'd yelled out he would have come up here and seen you freaking out, did you really want that?"

"No," I replied quickly. "Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologise for," Alice mumbled sadly, "I'm the one who should be apologising."

"What for?" I asked, turning around fully in her arms so I was facing her, secretly please when her arms stayed wrapped loosely around my waist.

She laughed bitterly, "you just finished asking me why I was practically holding you captive in your own room and now you want to know what I'm apologising for?"

"You explained that already," I said, shrugging and Alice's eyes came up to meet mine incredulously.

"You don't care?" She asked and I shrugged again.

"Well, if I'm not going to die, I don't really have a problem with it." I said, allowing my slight amusement to seep into my voice though I still hadn't got control my wildly beating heart yet.

Alice continued to stare at me disbelievingly, never blinking, and after about a minute I started fidgeting under her gaze.

"You know it's rude to stare," I muttered, looking anywhere but at her.

"I'm just trying to determine if you're for real or not" She replied, and I laughed.

"Well they say pinch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming."

She smiled sadly, "I can't dream."

"Really? So, you just go to sleep?" I asked but Alice was shaking her head before I even finished my question.

"No sleeping" She replied, grinning at my amazement.

"What about coffins?" I asked and she giggled.

"Well if I don't sleep I don't really much use for a painted wooden box, even if it is padded inside. However to answer your question, and all the rest you're going to ask; garlic just smells bad, I can't even tell the difference between holy water and tap water, bats are cool but I can't turn into one and I haven't met buffy yet."

"You're not a very a good vampire are you?" I remarked teasingly.

"Hey!" Alice cried indignantly, "I scared you didn't I?"

"But it would have been ten times more scary if Rosaline had done it, face it Alice you're just not as scary as you thought you were."

"You're far too bold for your own good," Alice said sarcastically and my face broke into a smirk.

"And you're too small to do any damage at all" I teased and Alice's eyes darkened instantly.

With a snarl she pounced, pushing me back onto the bed and bracing herself over me. My heart rate picked up instantly – not that it had slowed down all that much – but now it was back to hammering away frantically in my chest as I gazed up at my captor. Alice's normally golden eyes had darkened to a murky brown and her lips were drawn back over her teeth. I became transfixed with at the sight of her shining teeth, absent of fangs. With a shaky hand I reached out slowly, her eyes tracking my every moment, to touch her upper lip. I stroked my finger tip down to the corner of her mouth and Alice's eyelids drooped slightly. And as I traced her lower lip a low humming sound started, rumbling between us and the sound reminded me distinctly of a satisfied cat. I pulled my finger away slowly and Alice seemed to follow it unconsciously, burying her nose in the nook between my neck and shoulder. Pressed against me as she was I could now feel her purring, the vibrations sending shivers down my spine as she rubbed her nose against my neck, wrapping her arms tighter around my torso so I couldn't get away.

I hmm-ed briefly in amusement, raising my hand to run my fingers gently through her hair and this caused her purring to double in volume.

For a while we just lay there, enjoying the contact before I broke the moment.

"Was that meant to scare me?" I asked, keeping my fingers moving through her short locks as she appeared to enjoy this and miraculously managing to keep my voice from wavering even as my heart pounded in my chest.

"Yes," Alice whispered even as she made a low keening noise when I dragged my fingernails gently over her scalp. She inhaled deeply and my breathing quickened.

"Alice?" I asked unsurely as she continued to take in my scent, her breath tickling my skin and sending shivers down my spine.

"You smell _so_ good." She mumbled into my neck as her arms loosened their hold so she was simply holding me close rather than keeping me captive.

My breathing sped up at her actions and it felt like my entire body had turned to jelly.

"I hope that's a good thing," I mumbled, by some miracle managing to string a sentence together.

Alice took one more deep breath before pulling away, her arms still wrapped around me.

"Oh, it's very good for me," she remarked and her voice seemed slightly deeper "but not so much for you."

"Why's that?" I asked in a whisper, unable to stop myself leaning forward so our faces were inches apart.

"Because it's that much harder to resist" Alice whispered, closing her eyes and pulling her face away from me quicker then I could see.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, as she sat bolt upright straddling my waist with her head turned towards the window. Her sudden movement confused me and I'm sure my face reflected my confusion but Alice didn't seem to be paying attention to me at the moment. Her eyes may have been fixed on my window but I doubted the clear panel of glass had caused her enough trouble to warrant the heart broken look she directed at it. Unsure of what to do I did nothing as I'd never successfully comforted anyone but my mother and all I did then was sit around and hope she stopped crying soon.

"Are you hungry?" I asked unsurely and Alice sniffed and shook her head, her gaze never leaving the window.

"Would it scare you if I was?" She asked, her eyes starting to well with tears and I felt a stab of pain and terror in my chest so I shook my head violently.

"You're one strange girl Bella Swan," she laughed sadly, slipping off me and leaning back against the bed head. She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them as if to hold herself together and then her gaze finally shifting from the window to me. Heartbroken was not a strong enough word to describe the agony that was reflected in Alice's eyes, to fully describe it I would have to invent a new word but for now I will settle for tortured, her once bright eyes had dulled to a muddy brown, not unlike mine, and even as I watched the life seemed to be draining further out of them. Alice attempted to smile at me but it was weak and looked more like a grimace.

"Sorry," she murmured, "I shouldn't have done that. It's just that you smell exactly like her." Her eyes welled with more tears and when I reached my hand out, meaning to put it on her shoulder, she turned her head sharply back to the window and I pulled my hand back and lay it in my lap. I was afraid her tears would start running down her cheeks at any second but I could think of no way to comfort her.

"I'm sorry Bella" Alice whispered and I shook my head passionately.

"No, you don't need to apologise, you've done nothing wrong"

"Oh but I have" Alice said, looking back at me her face full of remorse and pain "you smell so much like her that if I close my eyes I can pretend she's still here."

"Oh" I whispered, feeling inexplicitly disappointed. I paused for a moment before continuing "that's ok, I mean, she obviously meant a lot to you."

"Yeah," Alice whispered almost dreamily, "she was my mate."

"Mate?" I asked curiously, feeling that strange pain return to my chest.

"Vampires are monogamous, we mate for life," Alice explained. "I took Lizzie as my mate in the 1950s. 16th of August 1953 to be exact" Alice joked for a second before becoming serious. "But I only knew her for 20 years before she, she died."

"I'm so sorry Alice," I whispered feeling like a knife had been put through my own heart while watching Alice. This time when I reached out to comfort her she allowed it and I pulled myself up against the head board as Alice curled herself into my side, allowing me to wrap my arms around her and offer what relief I could.

"Thank you," Alice whispered after a few minutes, drawing away and wiping furiously at her eyes. "Sorry, I'm being silly."

"It's never silly to mourn" I replied and Alice's gaze jumped abruptly from her lap to my eyes before a soft smile broke over her face and she finished what I was going to say "after all; the past makes our future."

"Did you have a vision?" I asked, confused as to how she knew what I was going to say but Alice just shrugged as a brighter smile spread over her face.

"Something like that," she murmured dreamily and I grinned nervously.

"Sooo...Are you hungry?" I asked after a few moments of silence where Alice stared dreamily off into space and I struggled to remember what we had been talking about.

"Right at this moment I'm not" she replied, losing her dreamy look though I could still see the pain hidden in her eyes "but I've eaten very well this week."

"Why? Oh! Is that cause, at lunch, I was?"

Somehow she understood my jumbled sentence and nodded.

"But, if you don't eat people. What do you eat?" I asked, curiosity once more getting the better of me.

"Animals," she replied and before I could fire away with my next question she placed a finger on my lips.

"How about we make a deal" she suggested "For every question you ask and I answer, I get to do the same."

"What could you possibly have to ask me?" I asked, genuinely confused and Alice grinned cheekily.

"Is that your question?"

"No, no wait. Um..." I ran my head quickly through my hair as I thought. "Ok, my question is, can you go out in sunlight."

"Yes," Alice replied, "what did you mean when you said I was the voice in your head?"

"Hey you didn't answer my question, what happens when you go in sunlight?" I asked indignantly, buying time to think of some answer that didn't involve my sanity coming into question.

"No your question was, can I go in sunlight, I answered that." She replied happily and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, my next question is what happens when you go in sunlight. Don't let me forget." I replied and Alice giggled.

"Bella, you have to answer" Alice said in a sing-song voice after I was silent for a good minute and I groaned.

"This is going to sound so weird." I mumbled, fiddling with the sheet.

"Bella, I just told you I was vampire; it can't get much worse than that. Come on. Pllleeeease." She pouted adorably as she said please and I bit my lip to stop from smiling.

"Alright," I mumbled, putting my face into my hands to hide the blush. "Basically after I moved here I started hearing voices, in my head. Specifically you, except today I heard Rosalie when I touched you at lunch, and that's how I knew you were vampires." I said this all very quickly.

When silence greeted my confession I peeked out from behind my hands to see Alice's face looking slightly shocked.

"You could see my vision?" She asked and I drew my eyebrows together in conversion.

"Vision?" I asked and she nodded slowly.

"That's what I call my visions of the future" she confessed. "I've had them ever since I can remember."

"And how long can you remember?" I asked tentatively.

"About one hundred year, give or take a few." She replied and my mouth fell open.

"So you're how old?" I asked incredulously.

"It's considered rude to ask a lady her age," Alice replied promptly and I rolled my eyes.

"We estimate I was turned when I was eighteen" She answered after a few moments of silence. "But I don't remember anything about my human life."

"Is that normal?" I asked.

"No," she muttered sadly. "I've never met any other vampire that doesn't remember anything. Our memories of our human life are generally fuzzy, but they're always there, almost always." Her face seemed to get progressively more melancholy the longer she talked and I couldn't stop myself from crawling over and wrapping my arms around her.

"So because you don't remember, you don't think you know who you are." I whispered and Alice's face whipped around to face me.

"How did you know that?" She asked and I smiled weakly.

"Mind reader" I tried and she laughed.

"Edward will be happy to have someone else with the same talent" she replied airily and my face fell in shock.

"I knew it!" I exclaimed and Alice giggled.

"He sometimes forgets to answer our words, not our thoughts." She said and I nodded my head eagerly.

"Wow. So does anyone else in your family have abilities?" I asked.

"Oh no," Alice replied smartly "you've asked enough questions, it's my turn. Now, did you actually see my vision?"

I cleared my throat, "well, I didn't actually see your vision, but I think I heard it."

"Why were Edward and Jasper fighting after that happened anyway?" I asked.

"Oh, well." Alice looked away, her eyes wondering around the room until they finally settled back on me. "When you touched me both of their powers stopped working on us. It wasn't such a big deal for Edward because he isn't as attuned to either of us as Jazz is to me. But Jazz is new to the vegetarian lifestyle, and he's still getting control over his thirst so he tends to use my emotions as an anchor. And then when that vanished instinct took over for him and that was why Edward intervened."

"He was going to kill me, wasn't he?" I asked, surprisingly not feeling all that afraid for having stared death in the eye and come away unscathed.

"Yes," Alice replied honestly, though she looked slightly embarrassed "he was ashamed of himself once he gained control again, but he's still wary that it will happen again."

"I love you Bella" Alice said, her voice coming from the window sill and my head snapped in that direction but upon seeing no one there I groaned, covering my face with my hands.

"Bella?" Alice's voice came from beside me this time, "are you alright?" She asked and I nodded, head still in my hands.

"Imaginary you is talking to me again" I muttered and I could sense the puzzled look on her face.

"That must get quite confusing," Alice muttered and I nodded dejectedly.

"So what did I say?" Alice asked and I flushed scarlet, though I wasn't sure what was so embarrassing about telling a friend you loved them.

"Nothing," I muttered and I heard Alice sigh in annoyance.

"Bella, look at me," she whined and cracked my fingers apart so I could see her but I shut them quickly when I saw her pouting at me.

"No way Alice, I'm not telling you!" I exclaimed, even as Alice tried to pry my finger away.

"Come on, I can't say embarrassing things and not know about them!" Alice reasoned, succeeding in pulling my hands away but I clamped my eyes firmly shut.

"_You_ didn't say them," I muttered "it's the voice in _my _head."

"They say you should talk about these things," Alice persisted and I finally opened my eyes to stare at her pouting face.

"No, definitely not." I responded, shutting my eyes to fend off the pout.

"Awww, fine." Alice huffed. "But at least tell me when you'd hear, well, me."

I looked down again quickly so she couldn't see my blush, before I realised Alice was a vampire and therefore would probably know anyway.

"All the time really," I muttered, turning my gaze from the sheets to meet Alice's curious stare and my heart rate picked up "It started when I got here and hasn't stopped since."

It felt weird talking about voice Alice when real Alice was in the room.

"It's definitely got to be my turn for a question" I said, eager to take the spot light off me. "Ok. What's your favourite movie?"

Alice laughed, "I've never really thought about it, but if I was going to pick one I'll go with Fame. I kinda wish it was normal was everyone to just drop everything and burst into song."

I couldn't suppress the bubble of laughter that escaped my lips at the mental image of the whole Folks cafeteria dancing on tables.

"What's yours?" Alice asked, flipping herself over so she lay on her back with her legs propped up on my wall.

"Hmm, I don't know I like everything."

"Well, pick something!" Alice replied playfully indignant, and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine"

Silence

"I don't know!"

Alice glared, though the effect was lost due to the fact that she was still hanging upside-down.

"Well I get two questions then," she said in mock anger, poking her tongue out at me and I stuck out my own.

This ensured a two minute tongue-poking-war, where we both screwed up our faces and relived our childhood.

"So why did you move to Forks?" Alice asked me once we'd recovered our maturity.

I shrugged, "it's not a particularly interesting story."

"Enlighten me" she replied, turning onto her stomach so she could look directly into my eyes.

"Well, my Mum got a new boyfriend. He was a lot younger than her."

At Alice's curious look I elaborated. "He was about six years younger than her. She liked him because of it; I suppose he made her feel young and beautiful again. Not that she's not young and beautiful but she's not quite as young and anyway" Alice laughed quietly at my stuttering and I huffed before continuing "Phill, that's the guy, plays minor league baseball, so you know, he travels a lot."

"And you didn't?" Alice asked.

"No, I didn't leave phoenix, and consequently neither did Mum, though I don't really call her that."

"Oh, what did you call her then?" Alice inquired.

"Renee normally" I replied, shrugging. "I didn't really make sense to call her Mum when I looked after her more than she looked after me."

"Didn't she look after you when you were a baby?" Alice asked and I shook my head.

"Nah, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. I don't blame Renee though, she was really young when she had me and honestly she wasn't ready for a kid. I still don't think she's ready." I laughed and Alice smiled at me sadly.

"Don't look at me like that," I said firmly.

"Like what?" Alice asked, looking surprised and confused.

"With pity, it's annoying."

"I don't pity you." Alice said plainly and it was my turn to be taken aback. "Pity is something you give to kicked puppies, I'm just sad that you feel you're not welcome by your own family."

"Hm," I hummed, trying to dispel the awkward silence while reeling internally. Sure, I'd implied that I didn't feel wanted by Renee, shipped from one place to another every holiday, but I hadn't actually said it.

Alice grinned."Awkward turtle!" She clasped her hands onto of each other and wriggled her thumbs in a bad imitation of a turtle walking. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Awkward shark" I counted, pretending to eat her turtle.

"Awkward GIANT SQUID!" Alice squealed flailing her hands at me and I toppled backwards, clutching my stomach in laughter.

"You're so weird" I told the ceiling, legs still hanging off the bed, and Alice giggled as her head popped into my line of vision.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment" she said cheekily and I flailed in arms in her approximate direction, telling her silently to move so I could get up. She grinned and denied my request, leaning down so it was impossible for me to get back onto the bed without hitting her.

"Whatever," I muttered, pulling my legs off the bed and shimming backwards so I could stand without head butting her.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"And that's my queue to leave!" Alice said chipperly and I turned around quickly.

"You're leaving?" I exclaimed, the very idea of Alice not being here when I got back being incomprehensible to me.

She cocked her head to the side curiously, "well I figured you needed to sleep, so I should let you do that."

"Oh, well, you know, you could, well, um." I stuttered away before I took a deep breath and started again "you could stay the night, if you wanted to. Like a sleepover."

Alice looked at me curiously for just a second before her face broke into an apologetic smile and I wanted to kick myself for suggesting it after I had, not 20 minutes ago, been comforting her as she told me how her life partner had died. Alice seemed to pick up on my regret and didn't bother making any excuses. "Maybe another time" She said simply with a kind smile and I nodded, grinning weakly.

"Well, go see to your human needs then," Alice said cheekily, picking her mood up and forcing a bright smile onto her face.

"Yes majesty" I said bowing mockingly as I played along and Alice raised her chin and gestured me to leave with a royal wave of her hand. I backed out the room still bowed and was half way to the bathroom when the thought occurred to me that Alice might not want to wait for me to get back to say goodbye so I doubled back to my bedroom but Alice was already gone.

"Goodnight Alice" I whispered to my empty bedroom and I heard the same words echoed to me as I walked back towards the bathroom; but whether that was the real Alice, the voice in my head or just my imagination was something I didn't want to think too much about.


	8. Morning After

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that can be found in the Twilight series

* * *

The dark is a funny thing; it's so great for sleeping and so not great. The problem with finding out the people you spend most of your time with are vampires is it tends to disrupt your sleep or it was disrupting mine. Perhaps someone without a preservation instinct and no imagination would sleep very soundly no matter what happened but I was not one these people and my vivid imagination, which had once been one of my most attractive traits, is now haunting me. Currently I was sitting up in bed, clutching my blankets around me as if being covered would keep me safe, and trying to convince myself that the shadow in the corner wasn't a person. It's just a chair - I tell myself - that ugly one Charlie put in here but the thought niggles at me that the chair has slats and the shadow has no holes, my hand itches to turn on the lights. I chanced a quick glance at the window but a thump caused me to whip my head back around and when I looked back the shadow had changed. Officially creeped! I lunged for the light, falling out of bed in the process and fumbling to get up and inspect my room in the luminosity. My breath came in quick gasps as I looked slowly around but nothing appeared to be out of place, except for the jacket that had fallen off my chair. I made my way slowly across my room, suppressing the urge to take my lamp with me, and picked up my jacket. It felt heavy; reaching into my pocket I pulled out my phone and laughed at my own paranoia.

"Stupid jacket" I muttered, walking over to my cupboard and taking great pleasure in chucking it on the floor at the back.

Walking gingerly across my room I checked my window was locked – for a third time since Alice's departure – before getting back into bed and pulling up the covers. Turning over to face the window I closed my eyes and within twenties minutes fell into a light sleep, though I kept the light on.

* * *

"Morning" Charlie called as he walked past the kitchen and out the front door to fetch the paper. I think I made some noise of recognition before going back to spreading butter on my toast, though my memory is fuzzy and I can't be sure.

"What's wrong with you?" Charlie asked, emerging in the kitchen with the paper tucked under his arm and I squinted up at him from under my drooping eye lids.

"Insomnia" I muttered, returning to the toast.

Charlie cleared his throat loudly causing me to look up at him again as he said "that kind of explains why you are trying to spread butter with a fork."

"Fork?" I looked down at my toast, it was a fork. I moaned and banged my head on the table, narrowly missing face planting in my food.

"Here" Charlie said, handing me the coffee he was holding, "you need this more than me."

"Thanks" I mumbled grabbing the hot cup and sipping greedily at the life giving liquid. After a couple of seconds and some rummaging through draws Charlie also handed me a knife.

"For the toast," he said, laughing as he sat opposite me and opened the paper.

I grumbled about annoying, overly cheery parents under my breath as I returned to spreading my butter.

"You been watching too many horror movies Bells?" Charlie asked "scared of a little blood" he joked.

"Something like that" I mumbled through a mouthful of dry toast, tomorrow I'm putting some jam on as well.

"Now, now, no need to be grumpy" he teased "it's not my fault you can't handle an all nighter as you teens say." Ecstatic with his proper use of teenage slang Charlie burst into loud guffaws.

"I'm gonna go," I muttered, sticking the toast in my mouth, grabbing my back pack off the floor and clutching the coffee cup firmly.

"Now Bells drive safely, wouldn't want you to fall asleep at the wheel!" Charlie laughed, unable to resist making one last joke which I resolutely ignored.

Picking up my car keys from the bowl near the door I made my way outside into the cold. The sight that met me caused me to drop my hard earned toast. An outrageous yellow car was sitting on my curb, its windows heavily tinted but the owner was obvious as she was currently leaning against the vehicle in expensive designer clothes. I walked towards Alice with my mouth hanging slightly open and doing a good impersonation of a gold fish.

"There's a car," I mumbled.

"Good morning to you too Bella," Alice said cheerily and I silently cursed happy, morning people.

"How did you get here?" I asked and Alice laughed merrily.

"As you just said Bella this is a car."

"Oh, haha you're so funny, between you and Charlie I'll die of laughter." I replied in a monotone, if you haven't already noticed I require large amounts of sleep to be civil. "Let me correct myself, why are you here?" I asked, running my free hand through my yet undone hair.

"Well, I thought I could give you a lift" Alice said, suddenly nervous, "seeing as you didn't get much sleep last night; sorry about that by the way."

"It's fine," I waved off her apology "it's not your fault I have an over-active imagination."

Alice grinned nervously and gestured towards the car, to which I shrugged impassively and hopped into the door she opened for me.

"Thanks" I said when Alice got in the driver's seat and she grinned at me.

"No problem"

Alice inserted the key into the ignition and where I expected to hear the roar of my truck I was greeted with the soft hum of an engine obviously tuned up more recently than the five years my beast was pushing. However I quickly came to appreciate how the roar of my truck filled the silence where Alice's car made it very obvious. I sipped my coffee to give me something to do with my hands and with each drink I felt my courage grow a little, but I kept my gaze on my feet.

"Sooo, what did you do last night?" I asked to the break the awkwardness between us and I felt more than saw Alice smile.

"I did some painting" she replied and now it was my turn to smile, turning my face up to look at her and catching my first glimpse of where we were out the window. Or I would have if looking didn't make me feel a little sick at the speed everything was flying past at. The hand that was not holding my coffee tightened on the leather seat until my knuckles went white and I glanced quickly down at the floor.

"Are you alright?" Alice asked as I counted to ten in my head.

"Yep," I muttered, secretly proud that my voice didn't break. I risked another glance at the window and was pleased to see we had slowed a little but were still travelling at ridiculous speeds.

"So, speeding is another vampire thing?" I asked, "or is this just you?"

Alice laughed timidly "it's a vampire thing, sorry I should have warned you. We're used to going at such high speeds that everything feels really slow, it's like when you come off the free way and then have to drive on suburban streets and it feels like you're competing with a snail for world's slowest though normally I'd go slower if you were in the car it's just that I'm nervous. Sorry I'm rambling, please say something so I can stop talking cause I can go on for ages, it's such a bad habit"

"Alice it's ok," I chuckled, choosing to look at her rather than the window which was still unnerving me a little.

"Oh good cause I was really worried I was going to scare you off, I mean you were up all night so obviously I creeped you out but I'm not sure how to fix it and I'm talking again, I really have to stop talking."

"Oh no keep going" I laughed, "this is the most entertainment I've had all day." That comment seemed to break Alice of her nerves as she glared half heartedly at me and didn't continue her ramble.

"Oh drink your coffee" she joked and I grinned as I took a large swig.

Within a few seconds we were pulling swiftly into the school parking lot and I had the feeling I could have gotten out a tape measure and recorded each distance of Alice's tyres from the white lines of the parking space and found them to be all the same.

"Is there anything you don't do perfectly?" I asked a little miffed, and Alice laughed.

"You might need this" she said, handing me a hair tie and looking down at my wrist I realised I hadn't brought one.

"I've never been proven right so quickly" I muttered, securing the band on my arm as we walked up towards the dull grey school building.

"BELLS!" I heard a yell from behind us and turning around I came face to chest with Emmett. Taking two quick steps backwards I looked up into his beaming face and smiled nervously.

"Hey," I said, waving, and he waved back before starting to rock on his heels.

"Sooooo, what do you think?" He asked eventually.

"Um...you're shirts lovely today" I replied, struggling to think of what he wanted me to say and Emmett guffawed happily and grabbed me around the shoulders, steering me towards the doors.

"Thank you Bells, I really do like it, Rosalie does too and you know how important it is to keep the women happy. Come on Alice you're slowing us down!"

Emmett removed his arm only to open the door and with a theatrical bow he gestured for Alice and I to pass through first.

"You ladies go on ahead I'm going to wait for the others!" He yelled even though Alice and I were only a few steps ahead of him.

"Sure" Alice replied, hooking her arm through mine and pulling me through the crowds.

Before long we were standing in front of the famous physics classroom, hard to believe I'd only been here two weeks.

"This is where we must part ways" Alice said majestically, sweeping her arm out to gesture me into the classroom.

"Indeed we must," I replied, stepping forward and turning around to enter the classroom backwards "I wish you a good day."

"And to you, oh, watch the desk," Alice replied cryptically before she disappeared down the hall.

"Huh?" I turned around and was one step from running into a desk in the front row. "Haha, I win" I said to the empty classroom, navigating my way around the desk and subsequently hitting my hip against the teacher's desk.

"Ow! Damn it." I cursed, rubbing my aching hip and glaring at the desk.

"I never would have hit that if Alice hadn't said anything. Damn that's gonna screw with my mind for the rest of the lesson!"

Limping to the seat Jasper had pointed out to me last week I collapsed into it and tired to not to think about any time paradoxes I was possibly living in.

I didn't take long for the class to file in and as Jasper passed me to get to his seat, he smiled. Although there was a bit too much teeth for it to be considered friendly, but I don't think my returned grimace was much better. It seemed that nothing had changed between Jasper and I, at least I thought so until he came up to me after class.

"Hey" he muttered under his breath and I was so surprised I didn't reply for a good minute.

"Er hi," I said eventually, wondering briefly if I should offer my hand to shake.

"I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to talk much" Jasper said brokenly and I thought the surprises were over for today.

"No, think of nothing of it, Alice told me I reminded you of your sister" I said thoughtlessly and wished instantly I could take it back but instead of the hurt I expected to see on Jasper's face I saw surprise.

"Alice told you about Lizzie?" Jasper asked and now it was my turn to be surprised.

"Lizzie was your sister?" And then we were both confused.

"How could she not be?" Jasper inquired and then it finally clicked.

"Oh right! Cause she's was Alice's mate, she was your sister, I see."

Jasper chuckled at my revelation and like the rest of the Cullen's his laugh sounded more like music, although if Alice was bells, Jasper's laugh was like a tuba, deep and full. The very image of Jasper with a tuba brought a smile to my face.

"I'm surprised Alice told you about her, she doesn't talk about Lizzie." Jasper said after a few moments, starting to head towards the door and I followed.

"Oh. Well, she was almost in tears the whole time," I revealed, "the conversation wasn't exactly smooth."

Jasper chucked again "we can't cry Isabella" he said and my shock was enough to distract me from the fact that he used my full name.

"It's just Bella" I said to break the silence. Jasper smiled cheekily at me and I could finally see why the entire female population here thought he was gorgeous.

"Not yet Isabella, we're not quite past acquaintances yet. Have a good day." And after delivering that dramatic line he turned away and walked down the rapidly emptying corridor.

"When I decided to ambush you I didn't expect you to take so long to get out of class" a voice behind me remarked and I turned around to come face to face with my first friend in this town.

"Angela!" I cried, hugging her briefly. "it feels like I haven't seen you for ages."

"Well, what with being Miss Popularity I imagine it must be hard to find time for us little people." She said jokingly, hugging me back and gesturing that we should walk.

"So how have you been?" She asked and I was thankful she hadn't launched straight into an inquisition about the Cullen's.

"Good, though I'm really late for Lit, can we talk at lunch?"

"Sure, I'll see you then" she said and we parted ways.

* * *

I was about ten minutes late for Lit but my teacher was amicable enough not to mention it when I crept into the class and after that the most unusual thing to happen was asking the girl next to me if I could copy her notes and receiving her reluctant acceptance. Angela met me in the hall outside the cafeteria.

"I see your not talking to your Cullen's this time" she remarked as we entered and I rolled my eyes.

"They're not _my _Cullen's, they're just the Cullen jeez, you'd think no one had ever talked with them before."

"They haven't" Angela replied and I stopped.

"What?" I asked, hurrying to catch up, ahead of me Angela took a tray from the stack.

"No one talks to the Cullens, ever. If a class does group projects they A – don't take the class, B – have one their family in it or C – have the project finished before it's set and say they read ahead."

"So, like, no one even knows where they live?"

"Oh no everyone knows where they live, this is a very small town - there's only many places you can stick a house - they just don't know what's in the house." Angela replied, taking a bowl and plopping some sort of meat in it, I forwent the mystery meat.

"I am not snooping in the Cullen's house to feed the Fork's gossip mill" I said resolutely and Angela put her hands up in surrender.

"It's ok I'm not asking you too, they have a right to their privacy. Sure I'm curious but I'd never ask you ferret around in their house."

"Well, good." I said awkwardly, grabbing an apple to have something to do with my hands. "What were we talking about before?"

"How the Cullen's are yours" Angela replied with a laugh, "but that's not actually why I tracked you down, and believe me it was tracking, I just wanted to know how you've been."

"I've been good" I replied, pleased that she cared.

"I saw you run out of the cafeteria yesterday, I was just wondering if you were ok." Angela said kindly, walking slowly towards her table and I realised she was giving us extra time to talk privately.

"Oh yeah I just ate something bad" I glanced meaningfully at the stew and Angela made a face.

"Don't touch the mystery meat guys," Angela said as she sat down "Bella got sick from it yesterday."

"Is THAT why you ran out!" Jessica exclaimed as Mike and Tyler both dropped their forks and looked dubiously at the meat they had been consuming.

"Ah, yeah." I said, feeling awkward as the entire table gazed at me in awe.

"I see Miss High and Mighty has decided to grace us lowly with her presence." Lauren said snootily from the end of the table and I blushed at the barely concealed hatred.

"You're just pissed cause Edward turned you down" said Tyler dismissingly. "So Bella, what's it like with the Cullen's?"

"Ah, good, they're really nice." I replied, conscious of the fact that they could hear every word. Chancing a quick glance at their table I saw Edward and Alice bent over and talking in hushed whispers to Rosalie. Jasper was looking pointedly at his tray while Emmett appeared to be trying to catch my attention as he waved at me when I looked at him. Waving back I turned my attention to the table.

"What do they talk about over there?" Jessica asked in a hushed whispered and I laughed at little at how she was asking all the wrong questions.

"They talk about normal stuff. I think we were talking about last year's school play yesterday."

"Really?" Jessica said, sitting up and casting a disappointed look towards the Cullen's table.

"Maybe you're just not part of the cult yet" Mike joked "they don't want to share their secrets with you yet."

Mike was lucky I was just drinking water cause if it had been anything bubbly it probably would have come out my noise with how hard I chocked at his words.

"Cult?" I asked, continuing to cough as Angela patted me on the back.

"Yeah, that's what we're calling them, the Cullen Cult, has a bit of a ring to it don't you think?" Mike replied with a grin, though it shot me a funny sideways look.

"You're sure good with these names" I muttered sarcastically, recovering gradually from my coughing fit.

"I like to think so," he replied enthusiastically, not appearing to pick up on my disinterest. "Wanna know what we're calling some of the teachers?" And without waiting for my reply he ploughed on with all the creative nicknames he'd created.

"Actually I wanted to ask you something" Angela said, managing to cut in when Mike had a breath between stories.

"Sure," I said, hoping I didn't sound too grateful that Mike was now silenced.

"Our group's going down to La Push this weekend, to do some surfing and have a bon fire, it's doesn't sound that great but it's normally really good, we were wondering if you wanted to come?" Angela said with a hopeful smile and everyone at the table leaned forward a little, anticipating my answer.

"Ah, what day, cause I work Saturday?" I asked.

"So do I!" Mike exclaimed getting way too excited "none of these lazy asses have a job yet, where are you working?"

"Just down here at the butcher," I replied, "So Sunday?"

"Sounds good" Angela said happily.

* * *

When the lunch bell sounded I went with Angela to dump my scraps in the bin and walking out I saw Emmett and Rosalie talking in the hallway, not wanting to intrude I went to walk past but Emmett called out for me to wait a second. Raising one eyebrow Angela shrugged and left for her class while I waited for Emmett to finish; although from the looks of things the conversation, more like argument, could have gone on for another hour if Emmett hadn't kissed Rosalie and dashed over to me.

"Hey Bells hear you're going to La Push on Sunday" Emmett said cheekily as we made our way down the hall. I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder and check what Rosalie's face looked like, in my mind she was pissed.

"Looks like it," I replied as we headed for maths and Emmett's grin widened.

"Bit of advice," he said "try not to bring home any strays!" And then he cacked himself laughing.

"Right," I muttered as Emmett laughed all the way to maths.

The afternoon was over before I knew where the time had gone and was walking out of the doors and planning to head over to the Butcher's but it quickly occurred to me that I didn't have a car.

"Need a lift?" A soprano voice asked from behind me and I turned around happily to find Alice spinning her car keys around her finger.

"Alice!" I cried, taking a step forward to hug her before thinking better of it and stumbling back, overall a rather awkward move. Alice seemed to know what I was going to do though as she laughed and stepped forward to hug me briefly before moving around me and towards her car where a group of teenage boys were currently gathered.

"That's insane" I muttered "you should sell tickets."

Alice laughed merrily "I thought about it but decided it wasn't worth the effort to clean the car every day. Excuse me boys."

Alice parted the crowd like Moses parted the Red Sea and after gesturing for me to get in, though I had to elbow a few people out of the way, she slipped gracefully into the driver's seat.

"So where to?" She asked and I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you already know," I inquired and she giggled.

"Of course, but it seemed polite to ask." Alice replied, starting the car up and pulling slowly out of the car park, amazingly not running any of the awed spectators over.

"Why a butcher anyway?" Alice asked as we drove and I shrugged, silently surprised at the fact that she did know where to go even though I'd joked about her already knowing.

"It seemed like a good job, plus the real positive was that it was available." I replied, smiling and Alice grinned at my joke. I congratulated myself on making her smile.

"Yes I suppose that does help." She laughed, pressing her foot down on the gas and the trees around us began to blur past. I gulped and looked down at the CD player.

"This speed is something I'm going to have to get used to isn't it?" I inquired and I felt rather than saw Alice nod, beaming, and press her foot closer to the floor.


End file.
